


Plan: B - Ballad of Swords

by TaroStrike



Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound, Rockman | Mega Man Classic, Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-09-24 22:44:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 46,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20366341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaroStrike/pseuds/TaroStrike
Summary: Every thousand years the six prime elements that make up the world enter a state of chaos. Until now, a hero of each element has risen to quell these primal forces before they tear the world apart. This time, something has gone mysteriously and horribly wrong. The first set of champions have failed. Now, a second set of chosen warriors must gather, grow, and finish what their predecessors started before it's too late, as well as avoid falling to a similar fate.





	1. Prologue: Those Chosen by the Planet

**Super Smash Bros  
** Plan: B  
Ballad of Swords 

**Disclaimer:**

-The author does not own any part of ANY video game series, including but not limited to the characters of the story.  
-This story is entirely fictional, based from purely fictional premise, none of the characters, actions characters partake in, magic spells, many contraptions found here-in did not happen/do not actually exist.  
-No money was made from the creation or distribution of this fic.  
-No animals, people, monsters, anthropomorphs, or extraterrestrials were hurt in the making of this fic.  
-The author does not encourage nor endorse others to partake in actions as described within the story.

**Warnings:**

This story is rated M+ for the following reasons:  
-Strong language  
-Violence and gore  
-Character deaths  
-Graphic depictions of sexual acts

If any of these themes offend you, please do not continue to read this story.

**Misc Notes from the Author:**

This is, in essence, a remake of a story I wrote a long time ago called “A Dance of Swords”. Originally Marth and Roy were my main characters in the medieval/magic/fantasy world of Ru’Taien.

This time around I’ve decided to throw all the video games I want at this story but Ness is the main character and others will join the party as time goes on. This will follow a lot of RPG elements.

This is completely AU, all the characters are being “humanized” (is that a term?) for this story. So while Bowser will remain quite a behemoth of a man, for the sake of this story he’s a large human and not a spiky turtle lizard. At least that’s how I’m going to describe the characters, if you prefer to imagine them still as non-human creatures then, by all means, go ahead. 

This story will delve into seriousness, cuteness, humor, romance, adventure, sadness, and rage. This story will also not be shying away from any kind of sexual interaction between the characters. There will be a lot of sexual exploration of many kinds before it reaches any type of romantic sexual scenario. If you’re not comfortable with that then I apologize but I would implore you not read the story.

Feel free to send me a message on Tumblr(TaroStrike), Twitter(@tarostrikesback), Facebook(Taro Strike), Google+(Taro Strike), or here(TaroStrike)

Have fun and please leave me feedback!

* * *

**Prologue: Those Chosen by the Planet**

* * *

“Some of you have heard of it as if it were a legend…” In the middle of a huge hexagonal amphitheater, thousands of people were gathered in the surrounding seats. The theater was carved deep into an island, the stage entrenched far below sea level. A young woman in a white gown and silver hair walked along the edge of the stage, her voice carried to each spectator in the amphitheater by magic as to be heard as clear as though she were standing beside each person present, “The legend states that every thousand years the elemental forces of our world erupt into chaos, and the world darkens until the champions of the elements gather and quell these primal forces.”

The young lady walked across the stage, her bare feet did not make a sound as her steps danced from one side of the theater to the other to flow with her words, “A legend does no justice to the champions who have gathered today to save us. Each chosen by a primal element of Ru’Taien to be it's champion, and today they are here to put their extraordinary powers towards guarding the entire planet for the next thousand years to come!”

The crowd burst into cheers as the six champions began their descent to the stage from six different corners of the amphitheater. Each pathway of the amphitheater gave off a colored glow for the hero walking down its path. Down an intense red path for fire walked the hero Mario, followed closely by his guardian Ryu. The next path was a royal blue for water and on it walked a young boy with pink hair who watched the crowd with wide curious eyes known to many as Kirby and followed by his guardian Shulk. The yellow path was for earth, and the muscular leader of the Kongs proudly strutted through, followed closely by a mysterious man clad in yellow known as Paku. The forest green color was that of wind which had chosen the swordsman Link and his guardian Cloud. Purple was for the element of lightning upon which walked the lawman named Fox who was guarded from the shadows by the ever-watchful Snake. And finally the element of ice had a lighter icy blue for its hue, and Prince Marth walked down that road with his mercenary guard Ike nearby.

The crowd settled as all six champions stepped upon the center platform. Their guardians remained at the edge of the stage as each champion climbed the steps. The six heroes nodded to each other and then held their arms up to the sky. The colorful glows of the amphitheater merged to become a brilliant white and encircled the heroes before the light of their element shot up from their bodies into the clouds above. A great amount of power was expelled from each of the six heroes to bring forth the torrential force of each of their elements. The very essence of each element began to solidify high above them, creating six different grand crystals that began a slow descent to the heroes below. 

The people watched in awe and amazement as the great miracle took place to quell the conflicting elements. Everyone was so enraptured by the spectacle that no one took notice of a shadow that had begun to overtake the island. 

The crystals completed their manifestation as the heroes saw what approached. Mario’s mouth dropped for a moment before he attempted to gather the power of fire to his hand. Unable to draw much power, he found himself out of breath, fatigued by using his energy to call down his raw element. He noticed the other champions were in similar conditions. 

In short order, the shadow passed over the island completely, all twelve members of the heroic party were frozen in time, trapped inside of crystals themselves.

The people panicked, scattering to the ocean in a desperate attempt to flee. If the heroes couldn’t stop the encroaching force, then what use were they? Others who understood the dire situation sought help, but with the best help trapped below, all seemed lost. 

The shadow’s grasp encircled the crystal containment of the elements, but the light of the crystals burst forth, bright enough to shine across the world, repelling the darkness for a moment before they ascended to the sky. 

“What’s happening Corrin?” The people asked as they shielded their eyes from the light.

The young lady in white watched as the crystals lifted higher, dragging their frozen heroes captive behind them, “The world is in danger, but should the chosen ones fail in restoring balance it is said that before the world falls to darkness the elements would each choose a second champion.”

With a final destructive explosion of energy, each crystal blasted itself off through the sky, scattering themselves across the globe. 

“All my hope now to the heroes who must follow…”

Near the top of a mountain within a faraway country, a young boy awoke from a sound sleep by a sound as though he were being spoken to. Confused, he opened his window and looked out toward the sky. His violet eyes reflected starlight, but amongst the stars he saw something else streak across the heavens. The purple light it gave off was brilliant and beautiful. He felt for some reason that it was there just for him, bathing him in the purple light as if he were special for some unknown reason. Just as quickly as the light came it had passed over the far horizon and was gone. Unsure what to make of it, the boy closed his window again and returned to his bed. 

Far away from that mountain but still able to see the same light, another young boy looked toward the gleam of violet in the sky, “Father? Do you see that?”

An older man stared off in the direction the light had gone, “So… it has come to pass after all.”

“Father?” The boy questioned again.

The older man put his hands on his son’s shoulders, “I am sorry, but another great burden has just fallen upon you.”

Across the planet, ten others looked up to the sky and saw a light, not yet aware of how that light would reshape their destinies forever.

The crystals tunneled their way through the sky, leaving their frozen heroes hidden within the lands of the highest concentration of their natural element while the crystals, having chosen their new champions, shattered into seven fragments each and fell to the earth. A silent wish whispered across the planet that the next time the crystals be brought together may it be by those not dwelling in darkness.

* * *

**End Prologue**

Let me know what you think in the comments! 


	2. Pollyanna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three years later, an adventure begins in Onett.

Thanks for reading on to the actual Chapter 1 of Plan B! 

Just a quick warning, while this story will feature a fully drawn out plot, there will be a lot of sexual action and references woven into the world and characters. If this offends you then it would probably be a good idea to not go any further. I want people to enjoy the story plot, but if various forms of promiscuous sexual contact offends you then this story is not for you. 

Thank you all for your support.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Pollyanna**

* * *

**Three years later…**

  
  


A cool breeze gently blew through the sleepy village of Onett as the sun peeked over the mountains on the horizon. It was still dark as two figures in tattered cloaks approached a large building on the southern end of town.

A man wearing a finned helmet leaned against the wall near the entrance; he looked from side to side, but mostly was dozing in the early morning hours. Dozing enough that he failed to notice the two shadows slip along the side of the building. 

A window slid open and the two figures climbed inside, “You were right, they did get restocked!”

“See? They’re telling everyone in town there’s no food when they’re sitting on tonnes of it!” The two trespassers made their way up the rows of produce and started filling bags they brought with them. 

“We gotta hurry,” one said as he stuffed as much as he could into his sack, “You never know when Frank is gonna…” the sound of an opening door hushed the statement as the two quickly found hiding spots.

“...that it’s part of the plan, but how are we going to explain all this food?” The boys peeked from between crates at the two men who had entered the room, one muscular, the other fat with a moustache.

The mustached man looked around the room and shrugged, “We’ll save enough for ourselves and our men, the rest can be burned, no one needs to know this food was ever here.”

“But Mr. Minch…” The thinner man lost his words as the large man stared him down. 

“Don’t be a fool, if the people believe that Eagleland has sent the supplies they promised then they will continue to support a failing nation. Destroying these rations is the most effective way of convincing the people they are in need of a newer, stronger government.”

One of the boys couldn’t help but almost growl after hearing such a remark. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand but the two men looked in their direction, “Did you hear something?”

“Maybe... the wind can make strange noises in here though,” Frank looked over the crates but didn’t see anything. 

Wanting to be sure nothing was amiss, Mr. Minch walked across the storeroom and looked down several dim aisles. The two boys huddled close behind a wooden box as they waited for the man to walk by. The footsteps stopped just beside them as Mr. Minch looked around the room.

“I don’t see anything, Mr. Minch,” Frank called from another aisle.

Mr. Minch grunted, “Obviously not,” the man walked away leaving the two boys to let out quiet sighs of relief. 

“How do you want us to do this sir?” Frank asked once he was at Mr. Minch’s side again.

“Oh…” Mr. Minch looked around at the large room, “By the end of the week, get whatever remains onto wagons and dump it on the other side of Mt. Itoi. Burn it in the night and no one will be the wiser.”

“Yes, sir...” Frank and Mr. Minch finally left the room.

Immediately the two boys jumped up from behind the crate. In an excited motion, the first boy pulled his hood down revealing black hair, blue eyes, and a red ascot around his neck, “Holy shit Ness! We’ve gotta tell someone!” 

The other boy lowered his hood as well, keeping his violet eyes trained on the door the two men had just disappeared through, “Yeah, but be quiet, they could still come back you know.”

“Come on, let’s get outta here!” Without further warning, the excited boy picked up his bags and started running through the storeroom.

“Ninten! Stop making so much noise!” Ness scolded as he quickly followed.

Ninten opened a window and started climbing out, “It’s okay, Mr. Minch and Frank went out the other side.”

Ness climbed down after Ninten, “Yeah but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other- guards- around…” Ness dropped to the ground and noticed he and Ninten were surrounded by about eight of the Shark Guards.

Ninten chuckled to himself, “So, guys!” Ninten paused as he looked around nervously, “You see- the thing is…” The guards gave the boys menacing looks as they stepped closer. Ninten gulped and leaned closer to Ness, “Need a power up?”

Ness nodded, “Power up!”

Ninten put his hands against Ness’s back as energy passed from him into Ness, “Power up!”

Ness grit his teeth as his hands began to crackle with lightning magic, “Thunder FLASH!” Light flashed and the crack of thunder echoed through the streets as Ness drove his hand forward. The light cleared revealing two of the guards were on the ground, slightly singed and charred, while the boys were nowhere to be seen.

“That way!” One of the guards pointed and the rest ran in that direction.

About five guards ran straight on as Ness and Ninten watched from an alleyway. The two boys stepped out and laughed. Ninten pointed in the direction they ran off in, “I can’t believe that worked! Ha, what a bunch of morons!”

The sound of a throat clearing caused the boy's eyes to snap open and brought their laughter to halt. They slowly looked back and saw a very large guard standing in front of the two guards who were still charred from Ness’s lightning spell.

Quickly Ness pointed his hand at the large man, “Thunder!” Another loud crack of thunder filled the streets, but once the light settled, a pillar of dirt and rock stood between the boys and their attackers. The guard’s hand gave off a faint yellow glow as he waved it from behind the wall causing it to collapse back to the ground.

“Earth Magic?” Ninten asked.

“Definitely Earth Magic,” Ness confirmed.

“Run?” Ninten asked.

“Running,” both boys turned and dashed as quickly as they could without dropping the bags of food they were carrying. 

The guard grunted and stomped his foot hard on the ground. The yellow glow spread from his foot, past the two boys, then the ground in front of Ness and Ninten broke apart as a rock wall rose up effectively blocking their path.

Ninten tried to jump at the wall and climb to the top, but slid down the smooth surface, “This could have gone better…”

Ness turned around, ready to fight, “I sure wish you knew some offensive spells right about now.”

“Hey, I’m a pacifist!” Ninten folded his arms and pouted.

“Then why are _you_ the one who keeps coming up with ideas that get us into trouble?!” Ness stood in front of Ninten protectively as the guards approached.

“There you guys are!” A new voice called from on top of the building to Ness’s left. Immediately a look of relief came over both boys.

A boy slightly taller than Ness and Ninten with messy blue-black hair and icy blue eyes dropped from the building and stood between the boys and the guards.

“Rock!” Ness cheered.

“Where the _hell_ have you been?!” Ninten demanded

“Sorry I overslept,” Rock yawned and stretched, “I told you I didn’t want to be up before dawn on a Saturday.”

The guard cleared his throat to get the boy’s attention, “Move over twerp unless you want to be taught a lesson for stealing along with your thieving friends.”

“Who stole what now?” Rock looked over to Ness and Ninten who shrugged while holding the bags of produce up. Rock stood up to the guard not at all concerned that the man towered over his own stature, “You’re really going to stand there and accuse my friends of stealing rations that you all stole from the people of this village in the first place?”

Ninten leaned closer to Ness, “How’d he know about that already?”

Ness sighed, “He’s probably been following us and listening in for a while…”

“Creepy…” Ninten shivered.

Rock sweatdropped but shook it off, “I stand by my friends here, so if you want to get to them, you’re going to have to go through me!”

“You’ll regret that!” The three guards made their move and charged forward.

Rock ducked under the largest guard and slid under him with a leg sweep. While the guard was off-balance, Rock shot up from between the man’s legs with a jumping uppercut which sent the earth mage soaring past the two smaller shark finned guards.

One of the guards who had already been charred by Ness tried to jump Rock next. With quick reflexes, Rock sidestepped and placed his open palm against the man’s back. Light built up in Rock’s hand and once it was expelled the man was launched at incredible velocity into the wall of a nearby building. The last guard put up his hands and began to run away. He made it half a block down when a sharp metal disk whizzed by his face and embedded itself into the wall in front of him. The guard turned, panic struck on his face, as Rock stood directly in front of him and confidently stared him down, “They’re going to ask you when you get back what you saw here today.”

From behind, the oversized guard pushed himself back to his feet and started running towards Rock again.

“Look out!” Ness called out. A glow came over Rock’s hand as the guard approached. With every leaping step the guard took, the light in Rock’s hand became brighter until he turned around and pointed his hand at the guard’s chest. Another beam of light, much larger than the last, impacted the guard and blew him off his feet. He screamed as he sailed through the air, over the top of the nearby buildings and out of sight. The echoing sound of a far off thump the only signifier that the man must have eventually come back down.

The remaining guard shook his head rapidly, “Nothing! I didn’t see ‘nothin!”

Rock reached past the man’s head and pulled his metal disk out from the wall, “Good, you can go now.” With a nervous nod, The Shark Guard ran as quickly as he could.

Ness ran up to Rock, “Thanks! That was awesome!”

Rock gave Ness a thumbs up, “Let’s get out of here before more guards show up.”

The three boys took back roads into town to avoid being spotted by any lingering search parties.

“So did you hear what they plan to do to all the food Rock?” Ninten began to rant at an overly excited pace, “They’re going to burn all the food that’s for the town and tell the people that no food ever came so that they all lose faith in Eagleland and then people are going to have to keep eating mush or go hungry and become angry, desperate, and willing to do something horrible and drastic unless we do something!”

Ness nodded, “Mr. Minch did say that; I can’t believe he would do something like that. But if we told anyone about what we heard who would believe us?”

Rock looked down at the sacks the other two were carrying, “You’ve got quite a bit of fresh food there.”

“Yeah, it was all we could get away with,” Ninten showed off his two bags.

Rock grinned, “If people wouldn’t believe us that Mr. Minch is going to burn all the food then we just won’t tell them.”

“What?!” Ninten immediately huffed as his emotions turned over.

Rock grinned as he reeled the boy back down, “Let’s do this instead…”

The sun was finally visible in the early morning sky as people in Onett were leaving their homes and forming queues to the stores that had only dried meat and vegetable mush to sell. People were looking disheartened as they waited their turn to be given their portions of the tasteless slop.

“It’s here! Everyone it’s here!” People turned their heads as they saw three boys in tunics running down the street, “The food from Threed made it last night! It’s at the southern warehouse!” Everyone in town lit up as they saw the boys carrying bags of fresh food and immediately a swarm of townsfolk made their way south toward the warehouse.

Rock watched the people go and smiled, “When the people get there en masse they’ll be demanding to be let in to get some food. There will be no denying that the food made it now.”

“But what about Mr. Minch?” Ninten demanded, “People still won’t know that he planned to burn the food.”

“Pick your battles Ninten,” Rock patted him on the shoulder, “Today it was more important for everyone to eat than it was to topple a dishonest loan shark.”

Ness nodded, “Yeah, you saw the looks on all their faces when they saw the food? We gotta do this one step at a time.”

All three boys walked up to Ness’s house and stepped inside. Ness’s mother was preparing things in the kitchen, “Ness, Ninten? Where did you sneak off to this morning?”

Rock leaned into the kitchen and waved at Ness’s mom, “Good morning ma’am.”

Ness’s mother smiled, “Oh, good morning Rock, were you with them too?”

Rock nodded, “Yes, I heard the food carriages from Threed bringing fresh food in last night, so I got Ness and Ninten up early so we could be first in line to get some of it.”

“Good thinking!” Ness’s mom smiled, “Is your father still out of town?”

Rock frowned for a moment but quickly righted himself, “Yes ma’am, he’s on important business still.”

Ness’s mom smiled sadly at Rock, “Well let me make some breakfast for everyone.”

A weight lifted off Ness’s shoulders as his earlier whereabouts were no longer a concern to his mother. “Thanks,” Ness mouthed to Rock as he carried his bags into the kitchen.

“Kiss-ass,” Ninten mouthed as he walked by Rock with his bags causing them both to giggle.

Ness’s mom made a large meal while the boys put the rest of the food away. Three younger girls came running into the room when they smelled something good cooking, “Real food!”

Ness’s mom looked sternly at the girls, “Now Tracy, we’ve been fortunate enough to have never gone without real food, and while we can be thankful that today we have better food than we have for the last week, don’t forget to be grateful for having any food at all.”

“Yes mom,” Tracy gulped and turned to the other girls, “Minnie, Mimmie, help me set the table.”

On the other side of the room, the boys had gotten bored and started poking each other with vegetables that were being put away. Ninten jabbed some celery at Ness’s face before putting it up. Ness retorted by poking Ninten with a carrot and putting it up. Ninten pulled out a potato and bopped it on Ness’s head and put it away. Ness pulled out a beet and shoved it in Ninten’s face causing Ninten to jump, “Not beets! I hate beets!”

“Ness!” Ness’s mom called out, “stop tormenting your cousin!”

Ness grimaced, “He started it…”

Everyone went back to work for another minute and then Ninten pulled out a large carrot and started making lewd motions with it toward his mouth to make Ness laugh. Ness retaliated by grabbing an ear of corn and rubbing his face against it suggestively. Rock picked out two peppers and pushed one into each of the other two’s mouths quickly. Ness and Ninten started coughing from surprise and then the heat of the peppers kicked in and they started fanning their tongues, “AH! AH! IT’S HOT!”

Ness’s mom shook her head and laughed, “You three really are like brothers with your antics.”

Ness hopped from one foot to another while trying to take his mind off his burning tongue, “How come you yell at me but don’t say anything to Rock for this?!”

Ness’s mom grinned, “Because I know by the time Rock steps in, you two probably deserve it.”

The two boys were panting to cool their tongues and glared daggers at Rock while Rock only scratched the back of his head and showed off a toothy grin.

The moment was broken as an annoying knock started rapping on the door to the beat of 'Shave and a Haircut'. 

Tracy looked to her cousins and sighed, “You know who that must be…”

“I’ll get it,” Ness ran to the front of the house and opened the door.

Two blond boys stood at the entryway. Neighbors from up the street, Pokey and Picky Minch, the sons of Mr. Minch. Pokey rubbed his chubby belly, “Heya neighbor! Something sure smells good in here!”

The thinner boy, Picky, waved more politely, “Hey Ness, sorry our dad came home a little while ago really upset about something and started yelling a whole bunch, we were hoping to maybe hang out until he calms down.”

Ness had a pretty good idea of why Mr. Minch was angry and sympathized with the boys. He turned his head and called out, “Hey mom, would it be alright if Pokey and Picky joined us for breakfast?”

An audible groan came from everyone else in the kitchen, but Ness’s mom very politely answered, “That’s fine dear, food is ready so everyone needs to wash up.”

Everyone made room at the table for the two extra guests while Rock and Tracy helped serve the food.

Pokey looked down at the plate and smiled, “Thank you so much, ma’am, you’ve really outdone yourself today, this looks and smells so delicious!”

“Just shut up and eat it…” Ninten grumbled barely loud enough for Pokey to hear him.

Pokey eyed Ninten from under his hair and smiled in a way that made the dark-haired boy shiver.

Once breakfast was done everyone helped clean up, except for Pokey. Picky nudged at him to urge him on and whispered, “Come on, do something to help.”

“Oh I would, dearest brother,” Pokey pointed to his leg, “But as you can see from the swelling I have twisted my ankle, best I rest it for a few more minutes.”

Ninten grimaced again, “What a lazy ass…”

The last of the dishes were put away when Pokey hopped off his chair, apparently completely fine, “Hey Ness, you gotta come with Picky and me, we got something cool to show you!”

Ninten crossed his arms, “And what is this _something cool_ exactly?”

Pokey put a hand up in front of Ninten, “Whoa! I don’t remember inviting you pacifist boy, I only told Ness to come.” The hand then turned to a pointing finger towards Rock, “And unless you can be more useful than a walking flashlight then we don’t need you coming either.”

Rock’s eyes widened and his arms crossed. Ninten was too annoyed to take it as he groaned and left the room, “Good, ‘cause I don’t want to hang out with you anyway.”

Pokey made a rude gesture with his finger and eye socket to Ninten’s back before he grabbed onto Ness by the wrist, “Come on Ness, let’s go.”

Ness shrugged and grabbed his shoes, “What is it you want to show me anyway?

“You’ll see!” Pokey looked excited about whatever it was.

Ness was almost dragged out the door when he looked back at Rock, “Oh hey, can we meet up at your house later?”

Rock smiled, “Definitely!”

Ness called back into the house, “Hey mom, is it okay if Ninten and I stay at Rock’s house tonight?”

Ness’s mom laughed, “Tired of a house full of girls, are you? That’s fine, we’ll have another girl’s night.”

“Thank you!” Ness waved to Rock, “Then I’ll see you later.”

“Come on, hurry already!” Pokey pulled harder on Ness out the door and up the mountain trail. Ness knew the trail well, he’d been up here hundreds of times it seemed and wasn’t sure what was so exciting that Pokey wanted to show him. The trek to the mountain summit usually took a few hours. They were near the top when Pokey turned off the path without warning and started pushing his way through the thick brush, “It’s this way!”

Ness followed close to areas no one ever really went through because of the thick foliage, “Whatever’s out here, how did you even find it?”

“Picky went running away like a little crybaby and found it first,” Picky sighed at Pokey’s comments but didn’t try and defend himself.

The brush was dense, the boys kept having to push large branches out of their way and slip between thick bushes. Ness slowed and rubbed a hand against his forehead. Picky noticed first that Ness was falling behind, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Ness paused and looked around, “I just feel kind of weird all of a sudden. Like-” Ness stopped as he tried to comprehend a sudden pull within his head, “I don’t know how to describe but-”

“We’re almost there, keep walking!” Pokey barked

After climbing up through gaps between boulders and a few steep crevices Pokey stopped, “Whoa, it wasn’t doing that earlier…”

Ness climbed up behind Pokey, “What wasn’t doing whaaaa?” Ness gulped as he looked around Pokey and saw a boulder-like stone, and embedded in it was a small crystal that pulsed in a bright violet light. 

The three boys kneeled around the boulder and stared for a moment. Picky broke the silence by asking, “Do you think it’s some kind of magic?” 

“It’s giving off light so it must be magic,” Pokey stated snarkily to his brother. He squinted his eyes as the light began to glow slightly brighter, “But I don’t feel anything from it.”

“You don’t?” Ness looked almost shocked.

“Nu-uh, why? Do you?” Pokey’s eye piqued as Ness was staring at the small crystal as if he were in some kind of trance. “You alright Ness?”

Ness nodded, “Yeah, but I definitely feel something- I think I- I think I’ve seen something like this before. A long time ago.”

Without any more thought, Ness reached for it. The world seemed to slow as his fingers closed the gap and finally made contact with the embedded crystal. All at once time began again and the light intensified, bathing the clearing in brilliant violet. Both Pokey and Picky jumped back from shock. The air had filled with static, and their hair was standing on its own.

Both Pokey and Picky had to shield their eyes to try and clear the light that had etched itself into their cornea. Once they could focus again, they saw Ness standing by the boulder, the purple gem-like crystal floated just an inch over his cupped hands.

“What is that?” Picky stared in awe as he got closer to take a look.

The moment was awe-inspiring; the very atmosphere around the crystal shard gave off the smell of ozone, and the light was the kind of hypnotizingly majestic sort that commanded attention. The rest of the world quieted and darkened so that all focus could be had on this one artifact of vast importance. No one said anything for a moment until Pokey held out his hand, “Give it to me.”

“Huh?” Ness and Picky both looked at him oddly.

Pokey nodded, “I’m the one that brought you here, you wouldn’t have known anything was here if it wasn’t for me, that makes it mine.”

Ness frowned and looked back down at the crystal shard, “I guess you’re right, but there’s something-”

Pokey reached out to take it but the shard gave off another bright glow as several more beams of lightning emanated from it, setting a few small fires to nearby bushes that it struck.

“Ahh!” Pokey yelled, “Stop that!”

“I’m not doing anything!” Ness tried to defend himself as he watched the crystal emit more lightning energy.

“I don’t care, just make it stop!” Pokey yelled as he hopped over a bolt that nearly zapped his foot.

Ness focused on the crystal shard for a moment and the lightning assault ceased. Pokey and Picky caught their breaths but then held it as the bright violet light from the shard expanded and enveloped Ness’s body completely. Pokey and Picky both fell to the ground as the light formed a pillar that shot to the heavens. There was a final earth-shattering crack of thunder and then the light simply vanished. 

Ness’s eyes snapped open, his irises gave off the same violet light for a moment and then faded. At Ness’s feet, a magic circle with a rune of lightning was burnt into the ground. Ness could feel energy flowing through his body, an electric tingling sensation coursed through every nerve and caused his breath to shudder involuntarily as he inhaled.

“Ness? What happened?” Picky tentatively stepped closer.

Control had yet to return to Ness’s breathing, “That was- wow!”

Though it was hard to make out, Pokey raised his eyebrows under his hair, “What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know,” Ness gulped as he tried to relax. The world around him suddenly looked and felt hyperreal. Every color was exaggerated to his eyes, every nearby sound was crisp, he looked up and could actually see small atmospheric disturbances as clouds moved overhead. He was also acutely aware of every sensation coursing through his body, from the breeze skimming by his arms to his own clothes hugging their positions on his skin.”

Pokey looked around at the clearing and the rune which was now etched into the ground, “Where did that crystal thing go?”

Picky finally shook the shock and disbelief from his head, “Didn’t you see? It like- went _inside_ of Ness!”

“Well then, can you take it out?” Pokey looked Ness all over again.

“I have no idea how it did-” Ness blushed slightly, “everything that it did!”

Everyone was quiet for several minutes as Ness seemed to need the silence to collect himself. Picky eventually spoke out, “I swear I’ve read about something like this before.”

Curious, Ness pressed Picky on, “Where or what did you see?”

Picky thought harder to try and remember, “I’m almost positive I’ve seen a picture before, like in a mythology book, there was like this naked guy holding his hand out to a huge crystal in the sky.”

“That does sound a little familiar actually,” Ness tried thinking as well. 

“It should,” Pokey’s voice hit an accusatory pitch that caused both his brother and Ness to turn and watch his approach, “It’s the tale of the Champions, the same ones didn’t finish the dumb ceremony three years ago.”

“Oh yeah!” Picky nodded, “The Champions are chosen every thousand years right? No one really knows what happened after the ceremony failed three years ago, no one has seen the Champions since, but the world didn’t end or anything.”

An unreadable gleam came over Pokey’s face as he stepped closer to Ness, “Could this mean there’s a new reason that you’re _special_ Ness?” He wrapped an arm over Ness’s shoulder. Immediately Ness leaned forward, his eyes shut, and shivered from the contact. “Ness? What’s wrong?” Pokey’s voice bled with false innocence. 

“It feels-” Ness gulped, as he tried to reel in the sensations coursing through his body again, “I- uhh…”

Pokey smirked from behind Ness as his hand continued to rub the boy’s back, “It’s fine, take all the time you need to get your brain sorted out, I’ll be right here.”

Ness shook his head and took in a deep breath to try and get control over himself, “I’m fine, thanks.”

The sky had darkened above the tree canopy; distant thunder and a single sprinkle of rain spoke of a coming storm. Picky wasn’t sure what was going on in front of him but looked up at the sky and took notice of the weather, “That changed fast, we should go back to town so we don’t get rained on.”

Ness put a little distance between himself and Pokey and shook himself off, “Yeah, let’s get going!”

Picky followed after Ness and Pokey silently brought up the rear. A dark look came across his face as his eyes remained glued to Ness on their return hike.

Several minutes of hiking down the trail seemed to clear the oddness of the day from Picky’s mind, or at least he began trying to get the others to get back to their rambunctious and teasing ways. Ness’s thoughts however still remained scattered and jumbled as he tried to determine what had just happened to him with the limited information he had. He was still deep in the introspection when he stepped on a loose rock. “AHH!” Ness rolled off the hillside and took a shortcut down to the next cross-path thirty feet below. 

Ness landed on his back with his legs still up the mountainside. Pokey leaned his head off the side, “Hey, you should be careful around here.” 

Ness twitched but the moment served to restore his demeanor, “Yeah, after I fall, thanks!” 

The three made it back to town without further incident. “Do you think dad will be in a better mood when we get home?” Picky sounded nervous.

A look of sympathy came over Ness’s face, “I’m sure he’ll be better by now.”

The three approached the Minch’s house and noticed an unusual carriage parked in front. Guards wearing dark colors of a uniform they had never seen before stood by the equally darkly colored vehicle. The boys walked by it not giving it much thought and approached the door but it opened before they could knock. The atmosphere immediately iced over causing all three boys to take a startled step back to avoid the door’s swing. A very tall man in a black coat with a sharply pointed mustache and arms that were as long as the boys were tall rushed out of the Minch’s home, “...tables must be moved up. With the artifact finally detected in such close proximity of your town I’m sure my superiors will feel there is little other choice.”

Not one for tact, Pokey immediately asked, “Choice for what?” Pokey’s father stood behind the tall man making violent motions with his hands at his son to shut up.

A monocled eye fell upon Pokey, “Oh, are these your boys?” The tall man leaned over and examined all three teenagers.

“The two on the left are, yes, the other is their- friend- _I think_?” Mr. Minch seemed exceptionally nervous.

Picky immediately shied away from the tall man, but Pokey put on his usual bravado by putting his hands on hips and stood cockily in place. The man laughed, “You’ve got some potential kid, keep that up.” The man then looked over at Ness, “You though- what’s your name?”

Ness narrowed his eyes and didn’t say anything to the gangly tall man so Pokey answered for him, “His name is Ness, he lives next door.”

“Ness,” the man repeated slowly, he grinned in a way that creeped Ness out.

“Gamgi Waluigi,” A certain fear was laced in Mr. Minch’s words as he regained the man’s attention, “Please let your superiors know that I stand fully prepared to support them in any way possible.”

“Indeed,” Waluigi eyed the man carefully before he began to walk away, “I expect they will be eager to take action here most- _immediately_.”

The boys watched the man enter the strange carriage in front of the house. The guards climbed aboard as well and with a shout from the driver the large horses pulled the carriage away. 

Mr. Minch watched the carriage carefully as it left, “Boys, I need you in the house, NOW!”

Both Pokey and Picky flinched but they obeyed and entered the house, “See ya, Ness.”

Ness nodded to the two of them and was about to leave, “Ness!” Mr. Minch spoke the boy’s name in a low tone that caused his skin to crawl in dread.

Slowly Ness looked over his shoulder at the man who he had been hiding from just that morning, “Yes sir, Mr. Minch?”

“You will speak _nothing_ of what you saw here to anyone, do you understand?!” Mr. Minch’s voice left no room for interpretation in his instructions.

“Yes, sir- not a word.” Ness tried to sound sincere enough for the man to let him go.

Mr. Minch waved him off so he ran back to town as quickly as he could. 

Ness’s tunnel vision was so bad as he ran towards Rock’s house that he didn’t even notice he ran past Rock and Ninten on the street, “YO! NESS!”

Finally, Ness slid to a stop as he noticed his cousin and best friend waving at him, “Sorry guys, it’s been a _freaky_ afternoon.”

Ninten’s eye piqued, “Umm yeah? You were with Mr. Freaky himself.”

Ness looked disapprovingly at Ninten, “We all know what kind of an asshat Mr. Minch is, he puts Pokey and Picky through just as much if not worse than he does to the town.”

Ninten shrugged, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, at least in Pokey’s case if you ask me.”

Ness shook his head quickly, “None of that matters right now, something’s going on, we need to go talk!” Ness led the way back to Rock’s house and made sure the door was locked before he sat down.

“So-” Ninten pressed while Rock leaned against the wall giving Ness his full attention.

“We went up to Mt. Itoi,” Ness gave the others the details of his day. The expressions on their faces changed when he brought up the crystal shard, “After I touched it- well- it just floated in my hands for a bit and Pokey tried to take it but it like zapped him or something. It gave off an even brighter light that shot to the sky and left all these weird marks on the ground. It disappeared after that, but I’ve felt like really- _weird_ isn’t the right word- I can’t even describe it!”

“You sure you didn’t fall off the trail and hit your head again?” Ninten had already noticed a bit of a lump on Ness’s head when he got back.

“I’m serious, this happened!” Ness defended.

Rock nodded, “There was a flash of light before the storm hit in the direction of Mt. Itoi today. It sounds like you found a really cool magical stone on the mountain and then it disappeared. Interesting.”

Ness quickly agreed, “But that wasn’t the end! We came down the mountain and went back to the Minch’s house, and there were these people there. I’ve never seen anyone like them before, they looked like they were wearing military uniforms but definitely not Eagleland’s.”

Rock leaned forward, “Did you see or hear anything else?”

“Nothing that made a whole lot of sense,” Ness thought carefully, “There was this guy named Gamgi, or Waloogy, or something like that, and he was visiting with Mr. Minch.”

“A Gamgi-” Rock looked alarmed as he repeated the word and took a seat at the table by his friends.

The other two waited impatiently for Rock’s insight. Ninten prodded first, “Do you know a Gamgi?” 

Rock shook his head, “I definitely don’t know one, but from what I’ve heard Gamgi isn’t a name, it’s sort of a rank, kind of like a general in the army.”

Curious as to who he might have seen, Ness asked, “Which army?”

Rock bit his lip, “From what I’ve heard from my father it’s a very high ranking officer for a member of the Golden Empire.”

“Golden?” Ninten chuckled, “What are they supposed to be really rich or something?”

Ness shrugged, “They sure didn’t look very golden, their uniforms were mostly black.”

“Yeah- about that,” Rock tried to explain, “Most people outside of it don’t seem to like the empire, they’ve been aggressively expanding over the last two years, and supposedly they’re called the golden empire because they spread wealth and prosperity, but people also say that’s just a ruse to cover up something terrible.”

“I know I didn’t get a good vibe from their Gamgi at all!” Ness shivered just thinking about him.

Rock took a few more moments to try and piece something together in his head, “Did he say anything that you overheard?” 

“Something about-” Ness tried to recall the exact words, “‘Tables must be moved,’ and ‘The artifact was detected,’ and ‘We have little other choice,’ or- something like that. I know it had Mr. Minch looking frightened.”

“If Mr. Minch was scared then maybe these guys aren’t so bad,” Ninten laughed.

Rock rested his chin on his hand as he thought. Ness noticed he wasn’t saying anything, “What do you think Rock?”

“No idea-” Rock looked back up and smiled, “but I’m getting hungry, how about you guys?”

“Definitely!” Ninten cheered.

“Your mom sent some food with us for dinner,” Rock pulled out a bag and set it on the table. 

The boys ate, played games, had fun, and allowed themselves to forget about the day’s drama. The old house lacked ventilation and had heated up from the afternoon sun and the fire the boys used to warm their supper. Shoes, socks, and overgarments were strewn about the room near the table the boys were playing at as the three assumed their guys night uniform of undershirts and small clothes. The games went on for a few hours when Ness slammed down the last seven cards from his hand and declared, “Rummy!”

“No way!” Ninten leaned over the table, “A seven-card Rummy, you gotta be cheating!”

“Nope, it’s legit!” Ness grinned with his eyes closed.

Ninten looked closer, “Wait- that’s a six of clubs, not spades! You _are _cheating!”

“Oh?” Ness looked down at the hand and tried to feign innocence, “My mistake.”

“Trying to trick us, this means war!” Ness barely had a chance to react as Ninten jumped from his seat and tackled him out of his chair. 

Rock laughed as he got up and started clearing the cards from the table. He managed to box the deck when he realized the normal wrestling match that should have ensued after the initial tackle was being exceptionally quiet. 

Rock slowly peeked around the side of the table and saw Ninten still had Ness pinned to the floor. Ninten’s hands were gripped onto Ness’s forearms, and their legs were slightly entwined. Rock noticed both their eyes were wide and their breaths were being drawn in controlled gasps.

“Are you guys alright?” Rock asked as he moved around the furniture that separated them. 

Ninten shook his head clear and climbed off of Ness before he held his hand out, “Rock, give me your hand.”

Curious as to what was going on, Rock did as told. Ninten took Rock’s hand and guided it to Ness’s arm. The moment Rock’s hand made contact with Ness’s skin a soft glow emitted from the contact and gave off an almost inaudible hum. An involuntary breath escaped Rock’s lungs as the electrical sensation coursed through his body from his hand. Ness squeezed his eyes shut and gasped.

Immediately Rock let go; a worried expression on his face, “Did that hurt?”

Ness quickly shook his head, “No! It-” he gulped hard before he could focus on the words he wanted to say, “It felt really _good_.”

Ninten grinned and ran a finger over the arm Rock had just touched. As before, he felt a pleasant tingling against his skin but noticed something else, “Hey, there’s no glow when I touch.”

Rock reached out again and touched Ness with just a finger. The contact was slight, and Rock watched carefully as a small spark formed between them. Ness squeezed his eyes shut as Rock moved his finger up and down Ness’s arm. 

Ninten looked back and forth between Rock and Ness. He reached over and grabbed Rock’s arm but felt nothing unusual. He grabbed Ness’s arm and for a third time felt the pleasant energy coursing through him. With one more experiment in mind, Ninten took Rock’s hand and placed it on Ness again, let the glow build up between them and then held onto Rock’s arm. Ninten closed his eyes and smiled. 

Rock noticed that Ninten could feel the energy flowing from Ness and through him. Rock was also starting to lose control of his breathing as the pleasant sensations became less subtle, “It’s, umm, coming from Ness alright. I think his lightning magic must be in overdrive or something.”

“_Shh_,” Ninten hushed Rock as he reached out with another hand to Ness while still holding onto Rock. Once Ninten’s right hand gripped Ness’s left it was as though a circuit was completed. Ness squeezed his eyes even tighter while Ninten’s shot open. He felt a complete flow through his body coming to him from Rock and returning to Ness before it returned in an intensified loop. 

They held on for a few moments before both Rock and Ninten let go and took in deep breaths.

Ness finally sat up once he had recovered most of his breath. He looked down and slowly cupped his hand over his tented underwear while a tinge of embarrassment crossed his face. A stifled laugh caused him to look up. Ninten was grinning mischievously as he adjusted the erection in his own underpants. Rock smiled and shook his head, but from his position sitting cross-legged, it was easy to tell he was in a similar state. 

“Come on!” Ninten got up and dragged both Ness and Rock to their feet. They tried to ignore the sensation for a moment as they turned out the lights and moved to Rock’s bedroom. Ninten wasted no time as he stripped off his shirt and quickly threw it to one side before he tripped on his underwear while trying to pull them off and jump for the bed at the same time. 

Ness couldn’t help the giggle that escaped his chest as he made out Ninten’s butt in the darkness as he tripped onto the bed. He immediately stifled it as he felt it was a very childish noise to make. Ness found himself feeling a little self-conscious and didn’t want to do anything to make it worse. He knew he was about to do something with his friends that he had only ever done before when he was absolutely alone. He took a deep breath as he told himself it was fine, he trusted them with everything and wanted more of the amazing feelings as well. 

Rock seemed to be waiting for Ness. He stood a few steps behind Ness and didn’t move to keep from pressuring his friend to anything. It wasn’t until Ness pulled his shirt off that Rock began to do the same. 

Ninten scooted as far over as he could on the small bed as Ness approached. The room was dim but Ness could still make out Ninten’s naked body pressed against the wall; Ninten had his arms behind his head and a cheesy grin on his face that Ness couldn’t help but laugh at as he plopped onto the bed beside him. Before he got too close to Ninten, Ness hiked his butt just high enough to get his underwear pushed down, and without any more thought, completely kicked it from his legs and pushed it off the end of the bed. 

Ness had to scoot over to make room for Rock, and the moment his side touched Ninten that energetic feeling began passing through them again everywhere their skin made contact. Ninten couldn’t help but rub his leg against Ness’s and spread that sensation across more of his body. 

With fingers hooked in the waistband of his underwear, Rock pushed down the final garment any of them had on and slowly sat on the bed beside Ness. Careful, as if still testing some kind of experiment, Rock hovered his hand over Ness’s arm until the glow returned. With the lights out the glow was a little more apparent. Rock’s face was close enough to where his hand was touching that the violet light slightly illuminated his features and reflected off his eyes, “Wow.”

A deep sigh blew past Ness’s lips as he became the center point of exploring hands and legs as they moved across his body. Exploration was conducted with trepidation, so far no hands had wandered into areas too personal, though Ness’s hazy mind was beginning to want it more and more. His right hand carefully traveled from the underside of Ninten’s wrist all the way to his elbow, while his left hand made a glowing trail around Rock’s hip. 

Ninten closed his eyes and lost himself for a moment in the feeling. It was like a current flowing through his body from everywhere Ness touched him. It made all of his nerves dance and toes curl as the energy spread through him in a slightly sparking tease. He opened his eyes to look across his friends in the dim room. He watched carefully for a moment as Ness’s hand moved up and down Rock’s side, and Rock’s own hand was moving so slowly across Ness’s chest down to his tummy that would quiver slightly, and then back up again. He could see they were all really turned on but no one was taking the next step. 

Always ready to take the lead and get Ness into trouble, Ninten took Ness’s right hand into his own for a moment before he slowly guided it down. Ness gulped knowing he was about to touch Ninten in a very intimate way. The tips of Ness’s fingers made contact with the skin over Ninten’s dick and Ninten couldn’t help but squeak. Both Ness and Rock watched him carefully, making sure he wasn’t being hurt by anything. Slowly Ninten’s face came out of its contortion and returned to a huge grin as he nodded and increased the pressure of Ness’s hand onto his entire erection. Ness closed his hand around it and squeezed making Ninten hiss as he sucked air in through his teeth and exhale in staggered breaths. 

Ness gave Ninten a few strokes and couldn’t help but vocalize, “Yours feels different from mine.”

Now curious, Ninten wasted no time reaching over with his left hand and gripped onto Ness’s equally hard erection. Ness made an involuntary moan and bucked slightly into Ninten’s grip. Once over the literal shock of grabbing onto Ness, Ninten made a few pumping motions as well, “Yours does feel different than mine,” Ninten slid his hand up and down in sections as if testing something. His hand stopped at the head, “Right here, it gets thicker than mine.”

Ness couldn’t help but beam proudly at Ninten’s remark. Ninten looked confused for a moment, then blushed in the realization of what he admitted, “So what if you’re a little bigger than I am? Rock’s bigger than you are, look!”

Ness did look to the left to see Rock’s full-body again. He knew the next step was going to be touching Rock and because of the way energy passed between them even more than it did between him and Ninten it had him both nervous and excited. His hand nervously inched closer. His eyes locked into Rock’s before he actually made contact, “Is it ok if I?”

Rock tried to steady his breathing. It was still obvious when he took a nervous gulp and nodded, “Yeah, go ahead.”

Ness nodded in confirmation before he touched Rock. In Ness’s eyes, the glow was a little brighter than other touches. He reminded himself to breathe and couldn’t help but wonder if all these electrifying sensations were coming in through his hand, what must Rock be feeling? Rock’s head sank back on the pillow, his mouth hung open slightly, and his entire body twitched sporadically as Ness gently stroked his length up and down. 

Ness felt Ninten’s hand cup over his hand that he still had grasped over Ninten’s hardon as if to remind him to stroke him as well. Ness let out a content sigh as he slowly stroked his two best friends in unison. Ninten began stroking him again as well. The room became quiet except for the sounds of breathing and sliding skin. 

The sound of a wet pop almost broke the trance as both Ness and Ninten looked over at Rock. Rock couldn’t help but laugh as he felt eyes on him, “That means I was close!”

Ness took his hand off of Rock for a second and noticed his palm was wet and sticky, but Rock definitely hadn’t spermed yet. 

Ninten pushed himself onto his left side, “I have an idea! Rock, roll to your right side.” Rock did as instructed, eager to see what Ninten was up to, “OK, now put your right hand on Ness like this and give me your left hand.” They were starting to see what Ninten was up to as Ness still had a hand on either of them, and Rock and Ninten reached over Ness to grab hold of each other while they also each had a hand on Ness, “If we complete a circuit this way-” Ninten didn’t manage to finish his thought as they all grabbed tight onto each other.

The energy which was gently flowing through them earlier began a wild course through their nerves. Surprised gasps and moans escaped all of them as their bodies jerked together. They refused to let go of their gentle yet firm grips on each other as tingling sensations made them feel things they had never before imagined. Even their feet pressed together making another contact point for current to run through. 

Neither Rock or Ninten could help it as they humped themselves against Ness’s hips while they jerked each other off. Their pace was not frantic, it didn’t have to be, the feeling was intense without requiring much movement on their part. They all slid their bodies against each other, making as much contact as possible while never letting go of their hold on each other. 

Ninten’s body was the first to tense. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried to prolong the sensations, but it was in vain as his body responded to the stimulus by throwing him through a massive orgasm, “Oh gods!” Ninten began spasming in place as he shot several ropes of sperm across both himself and Ness.

The way Ninten’s body jerked over Ness and Rock pushed them both to the edge. Ness’s body practically vibrated in place as every muscle became taught with impending release. His stomach muscles pulled his torso upward as his orgasm washed over him. His eyes flew open and a strong violet glow filled the room for a moment before quickly vanishing again. 

Rock barely noticed the light as it faded from Ness’s eyes as his own body became lost for a moment in his climax. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes but didn’t say anything about what he saw. The shocking contact with Ness’s body began to fade as they all caught their breaths. 

Ninten’s fist came up and landed on Ness’s chest, “That was- _awesome_,” he breathed out slowly, “Can you do that again sometime?”

“I don’t know how I did that this time,” Ness admitted. “It felt really good though.”

Rock nodded in agreement, “No kidding,” he pulled out a cloth to wipe himself off and handed it to his friends. “I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

The others made sleepy affirmation noises as Rock pulled a sheet over them

A lot was processing through Ness’s mind. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he knew it would have been a lot scarier dealing with it alone or with someone else. He wasn’t sure how to vocalize his thoughts or feelings though, “Thanks you guys, for being my best friends.”

Somehow understanding most of what Ness was trying to imply, both Ninten and Rock grinned as they sandwiched Ness tighter between them. Ninten’s ear to ear grin had yet to fade even as his eyes closed and his body relaxed, “We’ll stick together, no matter what.”

“Yeah,” Ness began drifting off as well, “No matter what.”

* * *

**End Chapter**

I know I have a tendency to make very dark-themed stories, and while this one may have a few dark moments I at least wanted to get things started on a bit of a light-hearted note. The banter between Ness and Ninten felt like a good way to do that. And this is a yaoi, so the hot scene at the end of the chapter is just kind of a requirement. 

I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think in the comments! 

‘Til next time!

  



	3. A Shot of Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the night, something ominous descends from the skies over Onett.

Notes: So I’ve got another chapter this week. I’m kind of surprised myself but I really like this concept and want to know where this is going too! Things are going to start getting exciting in this chapter, so here we go!

**Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords**

Ness and Ninten are cousins living in Onett where the Baron Mr. Minch was about to burn whole stockpiles of food intended for the people of Onett to lower public morale. Joined by their friend Rock the boys were able to expose the location of the food stock to the public. Mr. Minch’s sons then appeared at Ness’s doorstep in an attempt to escape their father’s rampage and took Ness to an unusual site near the top of Mt. Itoi where a strange purple crystal fragment imbedded itself into Ness’s body. Unsure what to make of it, Ness returned to Rock’s home where the three boys spent the night together.

* * *

**Chapter 2: A Shot of Crisis**

* * *

Rain fell over Onett throughout the night. The patter of thousands of water drops kept most people sound asleep and dreaming pleasant dreams. The distant booms of thunder rolled over the town like a soft lullaby. 

Some of the residents who were still awake stared off at nothing in the cloudy sky. A few of the residents squinted their eyes for a moment, convinced some kind of shadow was moving through the clouds; perhaps their eyes were playing tricks on them. 

In Rock’s house, three boys remained huddled close and sound asleep. A distant boom caused Rock to stir. His eyes slowly opened as his senses began to register both Ness and Ninten were still beside him. Something felt off but without any evidence he took in a deep breath, relaxed, and closed his eyes again. The sound of an explosion immediately jolted all three awake.

“Was that thunder?!” Ninten asked while catching his breath from the rude awakening.

Ness sat up, his eyes darted up as if he was looking through the ceiling, “I didn’t feel any lightning.”

“That wasn’t thunder,” Rock gulped as he jumped from the bed and looked out the window. The glow of fire was visible just a street down. Several more booms echoed in the sky before more buildings exploded.

Ness and Ninten covered their ears as the sounds of the explosions were close. “Is Onett being attacked?” Ness asked as he ran over to take a look.

Rock quickly dragged Ness away from the window, “Get dressed, hurry!”

Screams and the sounds of panic clattered just outside the window. Another explosion rang out and shattered the glass letting a searing heat enter the house. 

“We gotta get outta here! Come on!” Rock pushed Ness and Ninten out of the house as they shoved their feet into their shoes. 

Outside, rain was still lightly falling and the light of the burning village reflected off the clouds. 

There were no signs of invaders, but a cannonball landed close enough to see it. The metal sphere embedded itself in the dirt and let off a bright glow before it erupted into fire and molten metal, igniting buildings around it into flames. 

Ninten put his hands against his head and began to panic like many of the nearby people. “This can’t be happening- not  _ again _ \- Please, this can’t be happening!”

Ness took Ninten’s hand and held him still for a moment to keep him calm but was feeling just as anxious as he watched fires spreading across his hometown.

Rock looked up at the rain and pointed, “There!”

The others looked up, but at first didn’t see anything. Then from within the clouds, there was movement, almost too obscured by the storm to notice. More explosions then rang out as a group of airships slowly descended over Onett. Atop the lead airship, the boys could see a behemoth of a man with fire-red hair wearing a horned helmet. At the man’s side was a dark-skinned boy with the tattoo of a star on his face who raised his hands. Immediately everyone in Onett clutched their ears as screeching sound waves spread through the town.

“Attention citizens of Onett,” As the behemoth man spoke his voice was carried along with the sound waves so everyone could hear him, “Your village is now within the borders of The Golden Empire. Submit to the empire and your lives will be bountiful. Oppose us and your lives will end!”

The boy with the star tattoo ended the transmission and cannonballs stopped falling for the moment as the airships simply circled over the town. 

Ninten gripped his fists tight and anger washed him, “We can’t just let these guys fly in and take over our town!” 

“Come on,” Rock ran in the direction of the city center where most other people were going.

Ness brushed some water from his hair and looked ahead, “Why is everyone going in this direction?”

Rock bit his lip and tried to hide the building worry from his expression, “It might be to prepare a resistance.”

Most of the town had gathered in the town center. A few buildings were still burning, but the combination of the rain and a few water mage volunteers had the fires under control. 

The people gathered in the town square were scared and angry. The airships floating overhead were most definitely built for war, and Onett had very little in the ways of defense against such a force. 

Mr. Minch stepped through the crowd and climbed onto a platform to speak to the citizens. Before he was even up people were shouting, “Where are the city guards?” “Put the shark guards to work doing something useful for once!” “Aren’t you going to do anything?!”

Mr. Minch put his hands out to shush the crowd, “Everyone! Please! Tonight has turned into a state of crisis and we all have reason to be concerned, but I implore everyone to remain calm!” The people stopped their shouting to hear what Mr. Minch had to say, “Up in the sky, Onett is surrounded by Doomships, a caliber of airship that makes the most advanced airship of Eagleland’s military seem little more than a child’s toy. Eagleland has fallen into debt and recession in recent years and can no longer afford to protect its people from external threats. The Golden Empire can! By submitting to the empire we still have the opportunity to secure our future and our children’s future!” The people quieted as they took in Mr. Minch’s words. The sounds of submitting to the empire echoed through the crowd.

Ninten grit his teeth, almost growling, and ran forward. Ness held a hand out to his cousin but wasn’t sure what was going on. Of all people, the pacifist Ninten climbed onto another platform and started yelling over the crowd, “Don’t be fooled! You all already know you can’t believe anything that man tells you! He’s lied and cheated almost all of you already and only ever looks after himself! This is Onett and if this  _ golden _ empire thinks it can use our town to launch a war into Eagleland then it’s up to us to tell them the war starts here!”

“You better step down you insolent brat! You’re not even from Onett!” Mr. Minch spat out angrily before turning back to the crowd, “Standing up against the empire’s forces will do nothing more than get this entire town destroyed!”

The people gathered looked torn, it was obvious they had no desire to fight, but giving up their town to the empire wasn’t something they wanted either.

“I know there’s a lot at stake,” Ninten started again, “But this empire charged into our town with guns blazing, setting our homes on fire, no talk, no diplomacy, they’re using fear and threats hoping to get us to step aside, and I don’t like bullies who get their way using fear and threats. Sound familiar  _ Mr. Minch _ ?”

Mr. Minch was fuming at Ninten’s words, “I am ordering all of you to surrender to The Golden Empire! If you do not listen to me then I assure you that you will regret it!”

Ness and Rock climbed up to stand beside Ninten. Their resolute posture as they stood in the rain proved to provide more inspiration to the people than Mr. Minch’s steaming performance. 

“What do we do?” A person in the crowd finally shouted up to the boys.

Ninten was not free from fear as he looked up at the massive airships. Though he had the people’s attention, he was unsure of what could be done against such powerful invaders.

Rock put a hand on Ninten’s shoulder and everyone noticed a very serious and tactical look come over the older boy, “We use what we can, and we drive them back! Those of you who know some magic need to get ready to use it. We don’t have the experience of a trained military but we know this town much better than they do. Use cover to your advantage, form balanced groups so that you can take elemental type advantages. Those of you who have weapons or tools capable of defending yourselves need to get them right now! The weapons those ships are using are fire-based, so we need as many water mages as possible to counter them! Get everyone ready!” The three boys raised an arm and many of the townspeople did as well to show their solidarity before finding weapons.

The people dispersing could be seen from the airship in the sky and it slowly made its descent over the town square. “Are you ready to swear fealty to the empire?” The man shouted down once he was close enough.

Mr. Minch looked terrified as his teeth rattled and he backed away from his platform. The behemoth man noticed Mr. Minch’s strange actions and wondered for a moment what was happening.

“Let’s see if just maybe we can bring that ship down to the ground,” Ninten psyched up with Ness, “Think you hit the main propeller shaft?”

Ness nodded back, “I can hit it, I just don’t know how much damage I can do.”

“Power up?” Ninten grinned.

Ness smiled and gave a thumbs up.

Ninten stood behind Ness and pressed his hands on Ness’s back and pushed as much of his own energy as he could to amplify Ness’s, “POWER UP!”

Something Ness had never felt before came over him. The sky above them began to crackle with static as a new sensation built up within him. This wasn’t like the warm feeling of static on his skin, it was hot, and it was overflowing.

Ness pointed his hand out in the direction of the airship’s propeller shaft. The crackling violet energy around Ness caught the behemoth man’s attention, “What is he…”

“ **THUNDER!** ” A shockwave burst away from Ness before visible lighting even left his hand, then an enormous bolt of lightning shot forth, eclipsing any spell he’d ever used before. Even Rock jumped from the platform and took cover as the light and sound blew out every window that faced the town center.

The lightning struck some kind of defensive barrier around the ship but it provided only enough protection for the large man and crew of the ship to duck in time as the massive bolt of energy tore past and ripped all three masts of his great ship. The branches of the bolt were enough to singe the deck and set anything combustible on fire.

The burning airship immediately plummeted to the ground like a stone. The ship landed on the roof of a building and flipped onto its side before it slid to a stop. The large man shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears. He clung tightly to the railing of his ship and dropped to the ground once everything settled, “That couldn’t have been? Fox?”

Static bolts still lit up the area all around Ness. Ninten slowly poked his head over Ness’s shoulder, “Holy shit Ness!”

Ness breathed deeply as his eyes remained staring at the airship his lightning bolt had brought down, “How did?”

Rock crawled out from under the platform. He could still see the trail Ness’s bolt had made as nearby objects were melted and glowing red hot. Rock whistled, “Wow!”

The people of Onett were silent for a moment but soon erupted in cheers.

Ninten poked Ness’s shoulder, “Think you can do that again?”

“I don’t know, but let’s try!” Ninten nodded and pumped more energy through Ness’s back. Ness picked the next closest airship and fired another impressive lightning bolt at it. The crackling lightning tore through the hull of the ship and snapped the main propeller shaft causing it to spin out of control.

The leader of the attacking force saw another of his ships go down and growled lowly, “Morton!”

The teenage boy with the star tattoo pushed himself up from the rubble and returned to the man’s side, “I’m sorry Uncle Bowser.”

Bowser growled at the boy, “Project my voice to the fleet! Now!” Morton concentrated and radiated sound waves back up to the sky as Bowser spoke, “All ships descend, we’re taking this fight to the ground!”

Another lightning bolt went off and another ship made a crash landing. Bowser grit his teeth as he dragged Morton into an upright position, “Find my sword!”

The airships landed beyond the building line along the outskirts of Onett. Ness looked from side to side for a target, “They’ve gone too low, I can’t hit them anymore.”

“You took down three ships! That’s freakin awesome!” Ninten as well as many of the townspeople cheered. 

Rock gave Ness a proud pat on the shoulder, “In the air, they had the advantage, on the ground we should have superior numbers. Now we just have to hunt them down and chase them out.”

As the three boys made the charge down the side streets of Onett a crowd gathered behind them with what weapons they could find.

Ninten shook his head, “How did you shoot off lightning bolts that big? Have you always been able to do that?”

Ness shook his head, “No way, I thought maybe it was you who gave me a bigger power up than normal?”

“I don’t think so,” Ninten scratched his head, “I mean I gave you as much power as I could but I don't think it was  _ that _ much more than yesterday.”

The group turned a street corner and could see a group of armored warriors at the other end. The soldiers facing them wore solid suits of armor covering their whole bodies like shells. The soldiers charged the townsfolk carrying weapons like war hammers and spiked bucklers.

“We’ll have to figure it out later,” Rock stopped the conversation.

“Let’s give’em another one,” Ness charged his lightning magic in his hand while Ninten gave him another power-up. “ **Thunder** !” Ness lit up the street with lightning magic. The wave of oncoming enemy soldiers had no time to take cover as the electricity blew them all away.

Both Ness and Ninten were looking out of breath. Rock patted the two, “You guys are doing awesome, but you’re not used to expending this amount of magic so quickly, be careful.”

Ness nodded, “I’ll be fine.”

“And if he’s fine then so am I!” Ninten kept his bravado high but was starting to wheeze as though his bronchial tubes were closing.

Rock gave Ninten an extra pat and Ness’s eyes widened as he noticed it too, “Ninten! Your asthma!”

Ninten brushed them off as he struggled to remain calm, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

More enemy soldiers charged from around another street corner.

“We’ll hold them off!” One of the townsfolk with a sword charged in followed by many of the others. Weapons clashed on the street; swords, spears, and pitchforks met hammers and armor.

Another squad of enemies came around from behind threatening to surround the group, “We can’t let them get too close!” Ninten placed his hands again on Ness’s back and strained to pump more power into his cousin, “Power up!”

Ness brought his hands forward and launched another powerful bolt, “Thunder!”

The street was cleared of approaching enemies, but the spell had obviously been smaller than previous ones and both boys were looking fatigued.

“Take a rest you guys,” Rock urged them, “you can help again once you’re feeling better.”

Ness nodded as he took Ninten to the end of the street where they could take cover. Rock stayed near in case anything happened.

Rock’s ears picked up the sound of something charging. He looked from left to right and didn’t see anything, but there were definitely heavy footsteps running, and getting closer, “You guys, get ready to move.” Rock lowered his stance to ready himself for whatever might come from around the corner.

Rock focused on the road and steeled himself for whatever giant thing was coming his way. Rather than charge in from ahead, the wall next to Rock collapsed as something enormous plowed through it. Rock barely had time to pull out his metal disks and block a gigantic sword that came down over his head. An excruciating weight pushed down on Rock as the gigantic Bowser himself held the sword that was slowly crushing its way past Rock’s defenses.

Rock grit his teeth as he leaned backward with Bowser’s weight on top of him. He could feel Bowser’s hot breath on his face. His palms began to sting as the center ring of his own metal blades dug into his palms while he pushed up against Bowser’s sword. Knowing he couldn’t push Bowser back he kicked off the street and rolled out of the way of the attack losing one of his blades in the process.

“Rock!” Ness got up and started channeling more magic to his hand.

“So nimble,” Bowser spoke with a menacingly low vibrato as he swung again. The blade of bowser’s sword looked as though it extended out of the maw of a demon carved into the hilt. A streak of red heat was left with every swing of Bowser’s tempered blade.

Despite Bowser’s large size, it was hard to get a clear shot at the man where Ness could be sure Rock wasn’t in the way with all the jumping around each other the two of them were doing.

Rock flipped himself over another swing of Bowser’s sword and grabbed onto his dropped metal blade in the dodge. While he gripped his metal blades from the center rings he began to swing them like melee weapons as well as guard against Bowser’s sword, but the force of Bowser’s swings still knocked him back each time. Rock jumped completely over Bowser’s head expelling three light blasts as he did directly into Bowser’s face.

Bowser shook off the spells, “You’re a light mage? HA! Give up before you embarrass yourself!” Bowser held the sword up and the entire city block took on a red hue as the temperature rose dramatically.

The center of the hilt of Bowser’s sword gave off a great red light as the heat intensified. Ness’s eyes widened at the sight of something familiar attached near the guard of Bowser’s sword, “That looks like the crystal I saw yesterday, but it’s red.”

“BWAHAHAHAHA!” Bowser laughed maniacally as everything around him became consumed in violent flames. Ness suddenly realized he was in range of the massive fire spell, but something else ran into him and tackled him down as the shockwave of fire flooded over him.

Ness felt dehydrated from the heatwave that hit him. He put a hand against his forehead and shook it off as he tried to stand but finally noticed Rock’s weight on top of him, “Rock?” He looked over Rock’s back and could see Rock’s shirt had been burnt through and his back was hit by the fire spell, “Rock!”

Bowser continued to laugh, “Not often you see a light mage who actually puts up a fight, stupid boy!”

Ness grit his teeth as he stood up, “Ninten, can you heal Rock?”

Ninten ducked down to take a look at Rock’s burns, “Yeah I think so.”

“Then do it while I do something about this guy.” Ness lowered himself into a fighting stance and once he had Bowser’s attention and circled around him to move focus away from his friends.

Ninten looked worried but put his hands against Rock’s back, “Alpha Healing!”

Bowser shook his head at Ness, “You’ve got guts kid, but if you don’t stop this game then they’re gonna end up spilled all over the street.”

Ness picked up Rock’s metal blade from the ground and tried to look ready for a fight. Bowser swung at the boy and while Ness jumped out of the way he threw too much force in his jump. Bowser swung sideways to chop at the boy before he regained his footing. Ness tried to block the sword with the metal blade the way Rock had, but when the sword hit the blade he felt his wrist snap back and the blade was flung from his hand.

Bowser held his sword back to strike Ness down “I’ve had enough of playing with kids today.”

Ness reached into his pocket with his good hand and pulled out a wooden yoyo which he swung out hard. The toy rode up Bowser’s face, successfully knocking the behemoth man back a few steps.

A menacing growl escaped Bowser’s throat, “You’re making me mad kid.”

“Sparking!” Ness pointed a finger at Bowser and let another lightning bolt loose. Bowser shielded himself with his sword, but the electricity flowing through the metal object and caused his reflexes to drop the weapon.

On the other side of the street, Ninten had Rock back on his feet. The older boy tossed aside his burnt shirt and the two ran to Ness’s side, “Let’s finish this!” With a nod from Ness, Ninten put his hands at Ness’s back again, “POWER UP!”

Bowser recognized an insane amount of electricity building up in Ness’s hand as his face paled, “How does a kid have these kind of powers?”

Ness’s eyes gave off a bright violet glow as he held his hands over his head, “ **THUNDER** !” Ness threw his hand forward and released a lightning bolt that once again shattered windows and blinded everyone around.

The light faded and the spots in everyone’s eyes began to recede as well. Ninten blinked and looked at where Bowser should have been, but saw instead a different man, this one well dressed in a suit with an “R” patched onto his jacket, and in his hand he was holding another elaborate sword. At the center of the sword’s hilt was a yellow gem that was glowing brightly.

Bowser breathed out a sigh of relief, “Was wondering when you were going to show up Giovanni.” Bowser recovered his sword and pushed himself to his feet and stood beside his ally, “With your earth magic we can say goodbye to lightning magic having any effect on us here!”

Giovanni grinned, “It’s always best to use the element of your opponent’s weakness against them.” Giovanni tapped his yellow sword against the ground and a crack formed along the street which quickly snaked its way towards Ness where a pillar of stone burst from the ground and bashed him in the face. “Such is the art of being Super Effective in battle.”

Ness knew a powerful earth mage could easily turn the tables on him.

“Ness,” Ninten sounded worried, “Lightning spells can’t get through earth defense magic, what are we gonna do?”

Ness clenched his fist tight, “We have to try anyway!”

Ninten’s worried expression lifted and he nodded, “Right, one more time!”

Giovanni squinted his eyes, “What are those brats…”

“Power up!” Ninten pumped the last of his energy into Ness as Ness concentrated as hard as he could on conjuring his biggest lightning bolt yet.

Static visibly climbed up the sides of the buildings all along the street. Everyone’s hair began to rise as a trail of energy formed between Ness and Giovanni, “Sometimes you just gotta push through head-on!” Lightning came striking down from the sky into Ness’s upturned palms. The lightning formed a ball of energy over Ness’s head and quickly grew larger. “ **THUNDER!** ” Ness threw both hands forward and unleashed a bolt of lightning that immediately evaporated the falling raindrops.

“Tsk,” Giovanni held his sword forward, “Child’s pla-” the bolt hit Giovanni’s sword and the man’s eyes widened as he found himself having to concentrate on his defense. His boots slid along the ground as he was pushed back. Bowser’s eyes widened as he stood behind Giovanni and braced him against the lightning bolt.

Both Giovanni and Bowser were pushed back by the force of the lightning blast. The stone pathway beneath them was melting from the force. Giovanni couldn’t even hear Bowser’s shouts over the crack of thunder. Once he realized his defense was failing, Giovanni reached back and put a hand on Bowser’s shoulder, “ **Stone Skin!** ” Both Bowser and Giovanni turned to stone as the lightning penetrated Giovanni’s defense and washed over them. 

Ness and Ninten fell to their knees. They were panting as though they’d sprinted miles. They looked up and saw the statues Giovanni and Bowser had turned into.

Ness swallowed hard while trying to take in enough air to speak, “What happened?”

Ninten wheezed as he tried to recover his breath. He looked up at the statues as well, “Did we win?”

Rock stepped forward and poked at the statue. He noticed the gem in Giovanni’s sword was still glowing brightly, “It’s a defense spell, it’s going to wear off soon and they’re going to be mad.”

Ninten clutched at his shirt, as he tried to breathe again, “We put everything in that spell!”

Rock nodded as he turned and helped Ness and Ninten to their feet, “Yeah it was awesome! But we’re going to need more help to deal with these guys, come on!”

With Rock’s help, Ness and Ninten were on their feet and moving, but it was obvious they were both exhausted. They made it back to the town square where more residents had gathered with weapons. 

“Everyone! Trouble is coming, we need to know right now what abilities we have amongst us.” Rock started trying to organize the crowd, “Please raise your hand if you can use magic!” Several tentative hands rose up from the crowd, “Great! And out of those we specifically need water and wind mages!” Most of the hands lowered leaving just a few people with their hands risen, “Alright, now listen, in just a moment two very powerful magic users are going to be coming from around that corner, the big guy uses fire and the guy in the suit uses earth. You need to focus your spells on the one you’re strong against. These guys have some powerful magic, but together you can cast powerful spells too!”

One of the men stepped forward, “What’s wrong with the kid with the lightning?”

Rock shook his head, “He’s just tired, casting spells that powerful took a lot out of him as I’m sure you can understand. They’ve been doing a lot and need your help!”

Most of the people looked away nervously. 

Ninten leaned on Ness, he was doing his best not to wheeze and control his breathing, “They look scared Ness…”

“I know,” Ness wrapped his arm around Ninten’s shoulder, “I’m scared too.”

Ninten took in the fear and confusion on everyone’s face. He gulped down his own emotion and tried to stand on his own, “There has to be something we can still do.”

Rock put a hand on Ninten’s shoulder, “You need to rest a bit more or you’re going to collapse.”

Ninten smiled at his friends but pushed himself up past them, “I want- I want to show everyone what we can do!” People were turning and noticing the boy standing up and moving forward, “I lost one home already, my parents, my town. I love this place now, my cousin Ness and his family who took my sisters and me in. That’s why I was always so angry when Mr. Minch did things behind people’s backs to hurt them. How could someone do that to the people who were so nice to take in refugees from Podunk Town after it burnt to the ground? I may not have any spells that hurt people, but I’m going to do everything I can to protect this home, protect Onett!”

The people nearby heard Ninten and his words seemed to steel their spirits as confidence returned to them and they readied themselves for whatever was coming.

Tears were building in Ness’s eyes as he smiled at Ninten. He knew the boy had been through a lot and was proud that it hadn’t even come close to crushing Ninten’s spirit. Ninten might not attack directly, but Ness felt that Ninten could do things he couldn’t. Rally and inspire the scared into being ready to take on a terrifying enemy was just a new icing on the cake for how amazing Ninten was in Ness’s eyes.

The people were looking ready to fight along with Ninten when the boy stopped his crowd raising cheers. His eyes widened and immediately Ness could tell something was wrong. Ninten’s hand went to his neck. He pulled something from his neck and looked down at what appeared to be some kind of small dart. Ninten’s eyes clouded over and he fell to the ground. As Ninten fell to the ground Ness saw Pokey standing behind him, a blow gun in his hand.

Ness’s mouth went dry as he pushed himself to his feet and ran to Ninten’s side. Both Ness and Rock dropped beside Ninten and started shaking him, “Ninten, Ninten! Please! Get up!”

Rock lowered his ear to Ninten’s mouth, “He’s not breathing…” Rock started pushing on Ninten’s chest to keep the airflow going.

Ness quivered as he looked up and saw a wicked grin plastered on Pokey’s face, “WHY?! Why would you do this?!”

A horrible sound washed over everyone in the town square causing them to drop to their knees except for Pokey. Ness covered his ears but looked up and saw the dark-skinned boy with the star tattoo step out into the clearing with Gamgi Waluigi behind him. The two moved over to Pokey’s side, “I knew you would make the right choice boy,” Waluigi patted Pokey on the back as he took the blowgun back from him.

“What choice was it really?” Ness was still clutching his head from the pain the noise had caused as Pokey approached him, “You see it now don’t you? He was part of the problem, everything bad that’s been happening was because of people like him. Without him around the rest of us finally have a chance to be happy.”

Ness’s mouth hung open in shock, “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“He was always causing us trouble, remember when you and I used to spend so much time together?” Pokey took advantage of the paralyzing sound waves and ran his hand across Ness’s face, “Once he came to Onett... all of that stopped. He was changing you! Tricked you into not listening to reason and seeing things the wrong way. He’s been manipulating you and everyone to do horrible things.”

Ness’s jaw quivered, “Pokey- You were my friend, I always stood up for you! Whenever anyone...”

“And you’re my best friend Ness!” Pokey smiled from behind his messy blond hair, “I want you to always be my best friend- and more!”

Ness shook his head in shock, “I don’t- how could you do this?”

“Try and understand,” Pokey’s hand finally moved away from Ness’s face, “The Golden Empire has promised to take care of all of us! Don’t let Ninten spoil your future, you have potential, stay with me! They’ve promised that I can choose whoever I want to work at my side and that’s you, my right-hand guy! And one day when I’m in charge you could be my general, my  _ Gamgi _ !”

Ness’s fist shook as rage turned his vision red, “No- Never!”

Everyone was too distracted by the boys and their own aching heads to notice Bowser and Giovanni enter the town square until it was too late, “Looks like we didn’t even have to fight the brats after all, they take themselves out if you leave them alone long enough.” Bowser laughed sinisterly. The people nearby continued to clutch at their ears as they tried to step away from the threatening figure.

Giovanni tapped his sword against the ground and the very soil opened up around the feet of nearly every person in the square and ensnared every weapon around in stone pillars. Voices rang out in panic as the people lost their hope of winning this fight.

Time seemed to slow as people screamed in terror. Most people in the square abandoned their weapons and tried to stumble away from the battle. All Rock could hear was his own breathing echoing in his ears as he looked back and forth between the lost people, Ness as he struggled with his emotions, the villains who slowly approached them, and Ninten who laid unconscious on the ground unable to breathe.

Ness was still only focused on Pokey and he took several slow steps forward, his anger apparent in the atmosphere as static bolts were discharging all around him. He was close to overflowing again when Rock placed a hand on his shoulder and everything else around him became silent as he heard a whisper in his ear say, “Close your eyes.”

Though Ness wasn’t sure what was going on, he listened to Rock and immediately clenched his eyes shut. 

Rock held his hand up to his forehead, “ **FLASH!** ” 

Screams filled the town square as a brilliant light flashed from Rock’s hand and blinded everyone who stood out in the open. No one could move while the light stung their eyes, it was as if for that moment the light froze them in time. 

“Let’s go!” Ness could barely make out Rock’s shadow as he carried Ninten away from the Town Square. 

“Where are we going?!” Ness demanded.

“Home,” Rock ran as fast as he could with Ninten in his arms towards Ness’s house on the north side of town. 

“We can’t just run away!” Ness demanded still full of emotion.

“Ninten is dying!” Rock shouted which completely ended Ness’s argument. “There’s nothing else we can do for the townspeople now. One powerful enemy we could have stood up against, two we would have done our best. We’re not ready for this and now Ninten is hurt and we can’t help him and fight off an army at the same time!”

Ness cursed under his breath knowing Rock was right. The two practically knocked the door down to Ness’s house once they made it.

“Boys!” Ness’s mother ran into the room and looked as though she were about to say something and ask questions until she noticed Ninten in Rock’s arms.

“He’s not breathing!” Rock spoke with urgency as he set Ninten down on a seat.

“I’ve got frankincense,” Ness’s mother ran to the kitchen and shuffled loudly through a few cupboards before running back with a bottle of oil. Rock opened up Ninten’s shirt as Ness’s mother hurriedly rubbed the vapor oil under Ninten’s nose and over his chest. Rock started compressing Ninten’s chest again and blew into his mouth to get his lungs to keep working.

Ness watched scared from the front of the room and paced nervously. Rock looked over his shoulder, “Ness, you need to shock him.”

Understanding Ness ran up and put his hand against Ninten’s chest, “I’ve never done this before.”

“You can do this sweetie,” Ness’s mother encouraged him, “Just be gentle.”

Ness nodded as he focused on Ninten, “Spark!” A jolt flowed through Ness and into his cousin causing the boy’s body to jump in place and immediately Ninten started coughing.

“You did it!” Rock cheered as Ninten began breathing normally again.

Ness waited a moment but noticed Ninten wasn’t stirring. He started shaking him again, “Why won’t he wake up?”

Rock pulled Ness back, “He was still poisoned, there’s no telling what kind of an effect that’s going to have or for how long.”

“Poisoned?” Ness’s mother shook her head, “How?”

“Pokey,” Ness practically growled, “He turned on us and hit Ninten with a poisoned dart.”

The woman looked to Rock who nodded, “And out there?”

“The Golden Empire,” Rock explained, “They’re attacking the town and claiming it for the empire, we- tried to stand up to them but they’re strong.”

Ness’s mother closed her eyes and nodded as the depth of the situation sunk in. She looked to the side and noticed the three younger girls in the doorway watching expectantly, “The Minch’s are helping the empire, and they saw you boys making a stand against them-” She got up and shook her head, “That makes this house the next place they’ll search to find you, you both need to run!”

Ness’s eyes widened, “Run? We can’t just leave, what about all of you and Ninten?”

“I’m so sorry sweetie, I will do everything I can for Ninten, but I can’t let the empire take you,” Ness’s mother held him close as it began to sink into Ness’s head what his mother was saying.

“No! I- I have power! Today, I found out I have a lot more power with lightning than I ever thought I had before! I took down three of the empire’s airships, I… I can protect all of you!” Though Ness’s words were strong, the quaking in his voice came out almost as though he were pleading.

“Power? Three airships? What-” Ness’s mother looked at him closely. “You were able to-” she closed her eyes and put her forehead against her son’s as if to feel something, “...It chose  _ you _ .”

“ _ It _ chose  _ me _ ?” Ness shook his head not able to make sense out of his mother’s words.

Ness’s mother looked over at Rock and saw his eyes were clenched tight and his head downcast, “Of course, you came to be his guardian didn’t you?”

“Mom- I don’t…” Ness was almost in tears himself not understanding anything.

“It’s okay, dear,” Ness’s mother hugged him again, “You are so very special, but not just to me, you are important to this entire world, and that’s why you can’t stay here and get yourself captured by the empire. Go with Rock.”

“I-” Nothing was making sense to Ness at the moment, “I don’t understand…”

“Go!” Ness’s mom pushed him back to urge him to run. The look of fear and anxiety was still apparent on Ness’s face, “I’ll do everything I can to keep our family safe so don’t worry.” She then looked sternly to Rock, “You’ll protect him.”

“With my life,” Rock agreed.

Ness’s mother sighed as she stepped back and wrapped her arms around the girls, “Don’t go through town, go up to the mountain, there’s a cave. Halfway up the mountain go off the main path towards the spring, but turn north and you’ll find a way.”

Rock nodded as he grabbed onto Ness’s arm, “Let’s go!”

Tears were streaking Ness’s face as he was dragged out from his home, knowing he was leaving his family, about to run from his home, his life, and everything he’d ever known, “I love you!”

“And I love you son,” Ness’s mother held back her tears and clung to the girls tightly as the door closed behind the two boys, “With all my heart.”

Rock and Ness headed north past the edge of town and up the mountain. The sky seemed to acknowledge the end of the battle by opening and allowing the rain to pour freely. Ness and Rock quickly became drenched by the downpour; the mud made it hard to move, the sheets of water made it difficult to see. 

“Stay close!” Rock called as they ran through the brush.

Ness stopped once they reached the hillside looking over the town. From the vantage point, Ness could see the glow of Onett as parts of it still burned. 

Rock turned around and grabbed Ness’s hand “We’ll get stronger, and then we’ll come back!” Ness gulped down his emotions, “We’ll come back and we’ll save everyone in Onett.”

“We will,” Ness immediately resolved, “We’ll save everyone.”

The two followed the directions Ness’s mother had given them and found their way past the spring and were up against the cliffside. The mud became deeper and the two found themselves almost wading through it as they searched for a cave opening. 

Rock used his magic to create a beam of light to help them see. He passed over a thick brush and was able to see the rock wall behind it opened up, “There!” The two ran to it and pushed just enough of the overgrowth aside so they could crawl into the cave. 

Immediately the two leaned against the rock wall to catch their breath. Once their lungs stopped burning they started getting cold as they were still drenched from the rain and covered in damp mud. Rock looked around, “We can’t start a fire, that’d be a dead giveaway for where we are.”

“How deep does this cave go?” Ness got up and looked to the back as Rock created a beam of light from his hand to shine inside. 

The cave was large and extended far into the darkness. Ness walked deeper into the cavern. “Be careful!” Rock called out to him. 

Ness shook his head, “Do you hear that?”

“Huh?” Rock listed but didn’t hear anything. 

“That melody, I feel like I’ve heard it before,” Ness continued following the song he heard.

Rock followed close, keeping the light pointed forward. The cave extended at least a thousand feet into the mountain. “The melody’s getting louder over here!” Ness ran ahead and turned down a bend. Rock was close behind and when he shined the light down the next tunnel the two boys saw what looked like a gigantic seashell at the end of it. 

“What’s that?” The awe in Ness’s voice was apparent as he approached the light-colored shell. 

“I’m not sure,” Rock took a closer look as well. 

“It looks like you could crawl inside it,” Ness walked up to the opening in the shell but was stopped as a voice spoke in both their heads.

_ “To pass you must answer this question, who has lost his tail?”  _

Rock scratched his head finding the disembodied voice slightly ominous, “Who has lost his tail? That’s a little vague huh?”

Ness’s face scrunched in thought, “It’s familiar though,” He thought back trying to pinpoint where he’d heard it before. Suddenly his face lit up, “My mom, she used to sing this song before bed, that’s where I heard the melody. And the one who lost his tail was the forgotten one of the ship that sails the cosmos.”

As Ness finished his words, the opening on the shell emitted a beam of light which enveloped the two boys and they felt themselves being pulled in. Ness grabbed onto Rock as his vision went white and he could no longer see or hear anything.

* * *

**End Chapter**

Thanks for reading another chapter! I felt for a while that this chapter was getting really Ninten-centric, but it kind of had to since we won’t be seeing the poor guy again for a while. I hope the action sequences were cool and that the magic concept is working out. Please let me know what you think in a comment or on one of my social media channels! I’ll try and reply to all reviews on my Tumblr.

‘Til next time!


	4. Find Your Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ness and Rock have found themselves transported to a strange world where things are both familiar, and very much not.

Thank you, everyone, who has reviewed so far! I try to take the time to reply to every review I get, so if you left me a review and are interested to see my response then check it out on Tumblr #TaroReplies!

Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords

Ness, Ninten, and Rock were woken violently from their sleep as Onett was attacked by Doomships. The three boys helped launch a counteroffensive against their attackers despite Mr. Minch urging the people to surrender to the Golden Empire. Ness discovered his powers had greatly increased since the last time he used them, and with Ninten’s help to boost them further, he was able to blast several warships out of the sky. Once the ships were grounded the boys found themselves in a battle with both Bowser, the Golden King of Fire, and Giovanni, the Golden Proprietor of Earth.

Hope remained throughout the fight as Ninten helped rally the people to fight alongside them. Jealous of Ness’s attention toward Ninten, Pokey poisoned Ninten and effectively pulled all three boys from the fight. Ness’s mother swore to do what she could to take care of Ninten and urged Ness and Rock to run before the empire came for them. Though troubled by the concept of leaving home, Ness ran with Rock to the mountains to get as far away from Onett as they could. They found a cave previously unknown to them, and within that cave was a gigantic seashell that asked them the question, “Who has lost his tail?” Ness remembered a song his mother would sing him to sleep with from long ago and replied with the lyric, “The forgotten one of the ship that sails the cosmos.” With those words, the shell opened for the two and pulled them inside.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Find Your Way**

* * *

Ness groaned as his eyes slowly opened. He blinked a few times taking in a blurry shot of a strange landscape. Realizing he was someplace unfamiliar his eyes shot open and he pushed himself up. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and then looked around again. 

The ground around Ness was a light violet, almost pink, and surrounding him were dozens of seashell like spiral caves. Giant carrots and tomatoes were growing out of the ground, each one much bigger than he was. The sky above was purple but was slowly cycling between green, red, yellow, and blue as well.

“You’re awake!” Rock’s voice called from behind Ness.

Excited, Ness spun around, but quickly his expression sank into confusion, “Rock!” Rock stood behind Ness, a curious expression on his face while his hands rested on his slim bare hips. “Why are you naked?”

“I don’t know, but so are you,” Rock pointed down at Ness’s body.

“What the hell?!” Ness looked down at himself as he realized Rock was right and quickly tried to cover himself with his hands, “Who did that, and where are we?!” 

“I don’t know that either,” Rock frowned as he looked around some more, “Whatever this place is, it doesn’t seem- normal? I mean, nothing around here looks anything like any place I’ve seen before.”

Not too far off now Ness could see people standing by some of the shell-like caves, “What about those people over there?”

Rock shook his head, “I checked it out when I woke up and I don’t think they’re real.”

“Huh?” The people looked to be swaying on their feet and so they definitely weren’t statues or mannequins or anything like that, “What do you mean they’re not real?”

“Come on,” Rock walked off in the direction of the shells unabashedly. 

It took Ness a few moments longer to get over his modesty, “It’s fine, I’m just naked, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Ness spoke out loud to try and convince himself before he stood and followed after Rock. Immediately Ness found the place disorientating as he had no concept of direction as the strange land was ambiently lit from all around. 

Rock nodded to Ness once he caught up but seemed too engrossed in his own puzzle to pay much attention to Ness’s conflicted expression, “Everyone here is someone we know from Onett, but when you try to talk to them they each just have a sentence or two that they’ll keep repeating over and over.” Rock led them to a large spiral shell off a peninsula surrounded by what looked like it could have been water but had an equal chance of being grape juice. 

The duo stepped inside and immediately Ness’s hands shot to his groin again as he saw his mother, sister, Ninten, and Ninten’s sisters standing inside. 

Rock laughed, “It’s okay, like I said, it’s not really them, I think they’re illusions of some kind.”

Ness nodded but kept himself covered, “Why would there be illusions of my family here though?”

Rock let out a thoughtful hum, “That’s a good question.”

Out of curiosity, Ness stepped closer to what appeared to be his mother, “Mom?”

The figure of his mother slowly looked at him, “Ness honey, you should really get some rest.”

“Huh?” Ness tilted his head in confusion.

“Ness honey, you should really get some rest.” The figure repeated.

It was eerie seeing and hearing something that was so much like his mom but very obviously not. Ness gulped as he relaxed again and lowered his hands while he looked around what was trying to be a replica of his living room but inside a spiral shell. He tapped on the figure of his sister next, “I left your stuff in your room.” It seemed odd so he tapped on her again, “I left your stuff in your room.”

Rock stood over by Ninten and poked him so Ness could hear, “We’re going to go on an adventure!” Ness stepped over and poked Ninten again, “Don’t worry so much, it’ll be fun!”

Ness looked down sadly, “We shouldn’t have left him.”

Rock tried to be reassuring, “I’m sure your mom will keep him safe.”

“So what are we supposed to do here?” Ness huffed feeling frustrated by the strange place.

Rock shook his head, “We need to get out of here, we know we were on the Onett side of Mt. Itoi when we found the cave, maybe there’s an exit that we can find going somewhere else.”

“Let’s hurry and find it then,” Ness built up a little bravado and marched out of the shell house. 

“Sounds like a plan,” Rock gave Ness a thumbs-up and couldn’t hold back the grin at the sight of Ness’s bare butt leading the way out.

Up ahead was a hill the two ran up to the top of in order to take a better look around, “Are we on some kind of an island?”

The area appeared huge, and mostly flat, but there did seem to be some kind of purple ocean surrounding the landscape at its edge. Rock bit his lip as he strained his eyes to see as far ahead as he could, “It’s hard to tell what’s on the other side of the- ummm- buildings.”

“But there’s no wall,” Ness sighed, “This isn’t like a cave at all, how are we going to get out of here?”

Rock noticed the colors swapping sky darken a few hues. His forehead scrunched as he looked thoughtful over the change, “The town looks pretty big, so we may have to explore a bit. I’m sure there’s a way out though.”

Ness didn’t say anything else as he and Rock approached the town of seashells. An old man with a long beard dressed in a grey robe stood outside the entrance to the town. He stared back in the direction the boys came from but made no motions as they approached.

“Does he look familiar to you?” Rock asked as he examined the man.

Ness shook his head, “Not really.”

Rock reached forward and poked the man, “Welcome to Magicant!” The man said enthusiastically. He looked down at Ness, “A world you created.”

Ness gulped, “Me?”

The man didn’t say anything else. Rock poked him again, “Welcome to Magicant! A world you created.” 

Ness made an audible gulp sound, “What does he mean by that?”

Rock looked up at the sky again and hummed. “Let’s check out the town.”

The people of the town weren’t frozen in place, they swayed from side to side as if to give them some bit of liveliness, but none of them paid either of the boys any mind or did anything unless they were directly spoken to or poked. 

“This is really weird,” Ness said out loud as he walked down a street lined with shops. All of the storekeepers were people he had seen at least in passing in Onett at some point, mostly from walking through the real grocer street. 

A stand of dried jerky caught Rock’s eye as he reached in and grabbed one, “That will be twenty-five cents.”

Rock blinked as he held onto the jerky, “I don’t have any money.” The shopkeeper didn’t make any other response. Rock reached in and grabbed another piece of jerky.

“That will be twenty-five cents,” the shopkeeper said again.

Rock shrugged and handed one of the jerky pieces to Ness. Ness looked slightly concerned as he took the Jerky, “Is this stealing?”

Rock took a bite out of the jerky he kept for himself, “I still think this whole place is an illusion, so what are they going to do, arrest me for stealing something that doesn’t really exist?”

With a wry smile, Ness replied, “You could still get thrown into an imaginary prison.”

“Oooo,” Rock made a sarcastically shocked expression and took another bite, “I’m so scared!”

Ness smiled and looked down at the jerky he was given, “If it doesn’t exist though then how would this keep us from being hungry.”

“You’d be surprised,” Rock pushed at Ness’s hand encouraging him to eat, “as long as your brain actually thinks you’ve eaten then you shouldn’t have to worry about fatigue and hunger for a long time.” 

Ness gave an impressed nod and chewed on the jerky. Both boys looked towards the intersection of paths in front of them and calmly took in the familiar faces. Ness finished his jerky first and let out a small burp. He rubbed his stomach and realized he did feel like he had eaten something. He looked up at Rock again, “You’ve always been so smart, how do you know so much about everything?”

Rock’s eyes widened as he finished his jerky. He looked at Ness for a moment and his mouth hung open as if he was having a hard time thinking about the question, “My dad I guess- He’s- a really smart guy.”

“You’ve talked about your dad before but I’ve never met him,” Ness wondered out loud.

Rock smiled and rubbed Ness’s knee before standing up, “He’s always busy like yours, so that’s why he’s always out of town.”

Ness’s eyes widened as a thought occurred to him, “Won’t he be freaked out when he finds out what happened in Onett and goes back there and can’t find you?”

A laugh was not the reaction Ness was expecting, “Don’t worry about it, somehow I get the feeling he was expecting everything that’s happened so far.”

“What? Is he psychic or something?” Ness was legitimately curious now.

“He’s just-” Rock closed his eyes and tilted his head up, “really smart and can figure out what’s going to happen next. Even if he’s not so good at figuring out people."

A strange look had come over Rock, one that Ness didn’t recognize on him or know how to deal with, “Is that-?”

“But right now we gotta get back to figuring out how we’re going to get out of here,” Rock immediately switched back to his determined mode and looked around again.

Ness stood up and was about to wipe his hands on what would have been his pants, but realized he wasn’t wearing any in time, so just shook them and brushed the salt off instead, “What should we even be looking for?”

“Something out of the ordinary would be nice, but that’s everything here,” Rock rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. “For now, let’s keep exploring, I’m sure we can find some kind of clue that will help us figure this out.”

“Alright, then let’s keep looking,” Ness followed Rock as they weaved through different parts of the seashell town. They found many people Ness recognized including a local band that played around town, and even different kids Ness played sports and games with. Most everyone who they came across would speak about their ideas and the things they wanted to do. 

“One day we’ll fix our wagon and we’ll be able to play our music all over the country.” One of the musicians continued to say.

“This new sport will be like kicking the ball, but instead you hit the ball with a stick!” A boy declared excitedly. 

Ness noticed that Rock was starting to look a little nervous as they spoke to different people and that made him anxious as well, “Rock, it’s been hours, if this doesn’t work then what should we do?”

Rock stopped and turned to face Ness. He didn’t show any real emotion as he asked, “What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know!” Ness nearly shouted, “I’ve never been through anything like this before!”

“Well, I haven’t either, you know?” Rock crossed his arms.

“But...” Ness ran his hands through his hair and let out a frustrated noise, “You always know what to do about stuff. You have to know what's going on!"

Rock bit his lip as he looked down and noticed the area darkening again, "I'm going to do the best I can, but I don't know everything. You can't rely on me to always know what's best. I get lost just like anyone else. I'm not sure what's happening here, this is all new to me too."

Ness’s lip quivered slightly, “But if you don’t know what’s going on, we could be stuck here! Forever!”

Rock put a hand on Ness’s shoulder to calm him down a little, “Don’t think like that, I need you too. You need to be strong now and look for the things that I’m not seeing. If you decide on something then I’ll do everything I can to make sure it turns out alright."

Ness thought Rock’s words were a little strange, but he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, "Okay, I’ll try and figure it out too.”

Both boys nodded to each other and continued their search through paths and shops and other shell homes. Ness pointed at a shell on top of a hill, “I don’t think we’ve checked out that one yet.”

“Nope,” Rock shook his head, “we don’t know what’s in there yet.”

Ness led the way up the hill and ducked inside the large shell house. Inside was another living room replication, and sitting around the house was Pokey and his brother Picky. Ness gulped as he saw them. At first, it looked as though he didn’t want to know what they had to say and was about to leave, but curiosity got the better of him as he begrudgingly walked over to the pair.

Just like every other resident of Magicant, Pokey just slightly swayed from side to side as Ness approached. Ness had barely reached out when Pokey began to talk, “Do you remember when we were little kids? We always spent all our time together, coloring, exploring, doing yoyo tricks.” Pokey’s head turned to actually look at Ness, “Do you remember the promise we made the day you saw my dad hit me? That we would always do what we could to help each other.” Ness turned his gaze downward, looking guilty as the Pokey illusion spoke.

Even Rock took a few steps closer, growing concerned over how animated this Pokey was, “Ness?”

The Pokey continued his speech, “We had a plan, we already knew exactly how our lives were supposed to go! Then Ninten and Rock moved to town and you spent all your time with them. You were blaming me for what happened to Ninten, but that’s only because you didn’t want to face the truth. If you had just stuck to our plan then everything would have been fine, and nothing bad would have happened in Onett. That’s right, everything that happened was your fault!”

Ness backed away, though he couldn’t look away from the accusing eyes of the Pokey illusion which were just barely visible under the mop of hair. 

“Ness, no,” Rock reached out to Ness but the younger boy turned and bolted from the house, “Ness!”

Quick on his heels, Rock gave chase out of Pokey’s shell house. Once outside though he couldn’t help but notice a very apparent change in the environment, it was now night. Rock gulped nervously as he calmed himself down and continued to follow Ness.

Ness ran to the edge of the island. He sat and pulled his knees to his chest before burying his face in them. Rock saw where Ness ended up and stopped. He took a moment to sigh and compose himself. He slowly and calmly walked over to where Ness was and sat beside him. 

The two remained still and silent for a few minutes. 

“What am I even doing here?” Ness finally whispered.

“We had to get you away,” Rock leaned forward so he could speak softly and still be heard clearly.

“Pokey, I wasn’t as good a friend to him as I was supposed to be. He needed help and I left him alone. Now I’ve left Ninten alone too! I’m not supposed to be out here getting lost, I need to be home, with all of them!” Rock remained quiet while Ness remained on the verge of sobbing, “I don’t know what to do here. Ninten was always the one with ideas, and you were the one who would figure out how to make them happen. I was always just along for the ride. I can’t do this, I want to go home!”

“Hey…” Rock wrapped his arm around Ness’s shoulder, a wave passed through them from the contact again, but Rock remained steadfast on making his gesture a comforting one above all else, “I’m sorry, we never meant to drag you into things you didn’t want to do.”

Ness sighed in frustration, “No, that’s not what I mean. I’m not as good at this adventure stuff as you guys are. If you two hadn’t moved to Onett I would have spent every day playing sports with some of the other guys or drawing pictures with Pokey and Picky. And maybe if I hadn’t let Ninten sneak out when we found the food supply and told the town about it, then maybe the town wouldn’t have been attacked the way it was.”

Rock pulled Ness in tighter, “You can’t blame yourself when bad things happen. I’m sorry that things changed so much, so fast. There’s no way to know for sure what might have happened had things been different, but this is where you need to decide what kind of person you want to be, someone who turns a blind eye to injustice, or someone who stands up to villains and tells them, ‘No more’.”

“I don’t know, I just,” Ness shook his head into his knees, “Tracy has to be so scared, and my mom’s all alone trying to keep everyone safe. I should be there, not out here-” Ness was doing his best to hold back the emotion that threatened to bring him to tears, “I want- to help mom- I want- I wanna be home!”

Rock nodded in understanding, “You’ve never left home before, I get it, you’re homesick.” Ness curled up more so Rock gripped him tighter to try and convey his emotions through the bond in their contact, “There’s nothing wrong with missing home. I won’t lie to you, it’s probably going to be a long time before we get to see Onett again, but we have to keep going forward now.”

“Why?!” Ness’s head finally shot up from his knees, “Where are we even going to go?! Onett was all I had, there’s nowhere else out there that I can even go! I’m just some kid from a small town, I don’t have special skills, I don’t know how to go out there and- and- fight off an army! What am I supposed to do?!”

A crack of thunder indicated a storm was building in the distance. 

Rock cupped Ness’s cheek with his free hand, “We’re in this together okay? We’re going to take it one day at a time. We’re going to find a way out of here and then see what comes next, and you know what? When we find it then we’ll deal with that too!”

Ness turned his head to look away from Rock again, “For how long?”

“As long as it takes!” Rock smiled enthusiastically hoping to pick Ness’s spirit up some. 

The violet-eyed boy leaned back into Rock and let himself be held for a moment longer. He let out a sigh as he finally let himself relax into the touch that was still sending waves across his skin, “Why are you trying so hard for me? You’re always the one who gets things done, who isn’t afraid. Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just leave me behind and take care of yourself?”

Rock’s face fell for a moment, “There’s no way I could abandon you, ever. You’re my best friend and I will always do everything I can to keep you safe.” Ness stopped pouting and leaned his head against Rock’s shoulder, “And besides, if you’d stop to think about it a bit you’d realize that you have much more potential to make it out here than you’re giving yourself credit for.”

Ness’s violet eyes rolled up to look at Rock’s icy blue ones, “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember what you did to those airships?!” Rock started laughing which caused Ness to chuckle as well. Rock pointed his hand out at the water like a gun, “You pointed a finger at them and ‘BOOM!’ brought them down like nothing! And those were big badass empire warships!”

A full smile slowly appeared on Ness’s face, “I guess I did do that.”

Rock felt Ness sink further into his side as he continued to run his hand along Ness’s back and shoulder. Rock could tell Ness was finally calming down, the electricity in their touch was beginning to glow again and create small arcing sparks. Rock did his best to continue ignoring the not unpleasant stimulation, “You did, and it was incredible! And that, more than anything, inspired the people of Onett to make a stand. You have the power to make a difference, influence others, and inspire change for the better. So now we need to go out there and make that difference Ness.”

Ness leaned away from Rock as light began to shine from over the horizon again, “Thanks, I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here with me.”

The two shared a tender moment, but Rock decided he couldn’t let things be overly serious, “I’m glad we made it through the tender mushy stuff, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep being serious while your skin shocking thing was getting me all hot again.”

Ness stifled a laugh, “Get you hot? What do you think it does to me?!”

“Oh?” Rock leaned in really close, just an inch away from Ness’s face, “What does it do to you?”

It was still difficult for Ness to keep a straight face as he said, “Well- you know!”

Rock formed a sloppy grin as he eyed Ness, “I can’t say for sure what it does to you, but it really makes me hor- AH!” Rock was interrupted as something crashed into his side and he was flung into the purple water.

Rock quickly surfaced and gasped for air and both he and Ness stared at the strange black rabbit-like creature who had pushed him.

The creature hopped animatedly from one foot to another, “What is…”

Rock quickly climbed out of the purple fluid, “It’s a spriggan!”

“A- what?” Naming the creature didn’t help Ness at all.

“A spirit of mischief,” Rock took a step closer, “But what’s it doing here?”

The spriggan cackled with only a split second warning before it jump-kicked Rock again into the purple ocean. 

Once again Rock quickly surfaced for breath, “This stuff tastes weird!” he pulled himself out again as the fuzzy creature quickly hopped away. Ness helped pull Rock back to his feet as Rock kept an eye on his assailant, “Think we should see where it goes?”

Ness nodded his head, “Definitely, let’s follow it.”

Rock shook himself dry before the two boys ran through the seashell town hot on the heels of the spriggan who jumped him. The two slid around corners, desperate to not lose sight of the only thing that had made any significant movement over the last few hours. 

The two were almost sprinting for several minutes as they weaved through town. The spriggan hopped toward a dark red strip of land that twisted out over the water and continued on. Both Ness and Rock finally had to stop to catch their breath. They watched as the deep fog settled in over the reddened area. 

“That’s new.” Rock admitted through deep breaths.

Ness nodded, “We might be getting somewhere.”

A house was situated near the division of areas with what appeared to be a graveyard next to it. Rock pointed at the cross, “Haven’t seen anything like that around here before.”

Ness looked slightly nervous, “Should we knock or just go in?”

Rock shrugged so the two of them pushed the door open. Inside the house, a group of five muscular feathered men with beaks looked up from various activities including reading magazines and lifting weights. 

Both Ness and Rock blinked a few times, looked at each other to judge how unusual the sight was to the other, and then turned back to the room. Ness finally broke the awkward silence, “Umm- hi?”

“Good morning,” one of them replied politely in a clear masculine voice causing both boys to look slightly shocked, “Are you two in need of assistance?”

“Maybe?” Ness answered unsure of what was going on. The two entered the room and immediately the bird men jumped in excitement.

“They’re in need of assistance!” All of the birdmen dropped what they were doing and ran to the front of the room. Four of the birdmen struck elaborate poses while the fifth looked disinterested off to the side. Together they all cried out, “We are the flying men!”

They quickly broke formation and huddled together, “What do you think they need?” One of them asked.

“Could be anything, the poor naked things have no feathers…” rang out from another beak.

One looked closely at Ness, “I’ve got it! The skinny one needs to build up some manly muscles!”

“Actually we-” Ness tried to explain but was interrupted as a feathered arm was put around his shoulder.

“Come right this way young lord! Right this way!” Ness found himself being dragged to a weight machine.

“No really I-” Ness was pushed onto the bench as the birdman moved Ness’s hands to the barbell.

“The first step is to breathe, loosen up, now you’re ready! I will spot you! Go!” Rock scratched his head as he looked around the room at the strange creatures who seemed friendly enough.

“Really I don’t need to…” Ness tried to stop but the flying man was pulling the barbell over the support and into Ness’s grip, “WHOA! Heavy! Heavy! Heavy!”

“That’s the only way you’re going to get stronger and build those manly muscles young lord!” The flying man helped Ness lift the weights up and down, “Once you’re sweating and the heart is thumping you know it’s working!”

“Thump! Thump! Thump! Sweat! Sweat! Sweat!” Chanted most of the flying men except the uninterested one who went back to his magazine.

Rock couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he watched the flying men fuss over Ness. Ness gave Rock a distressed look which didn’t help Rock feel any more sympathetic. 

“Keep going, don’t quit now, how are you gonna achieve your dream body if you don’t work for it?” The flying man encouraged as he continued spotting Ness.

“Dream huh?” Rock rubbed his chin as he looked around. 

After several sets, the barbell was finally put back on the support bracket. Ness popped up and started rubbing his arms, “Holy crap, that was heavy!”

“You’ll feel stronger for it soon though!” A flying man flexed in front of him, “Strong! Tough! Courageous! Determined!”

Another flying man stood by Ness, “What else can we help you with today young lord?”

Quickly Ness responded, “We’re just trying to get out of here! Can you tell us where to go and how to get back to- the normal world?”

All of the flying men looked at each for a moment and then all at once burst out laughing, “Well young lord, we can show you the way, but the how is up to you!”

“Okay-” Ness replied feeling confused.

One of the flying men stepped forward, “The road ahead is dangerous though, I will accompany you and be your courage.”

“Umm- Thanks. I think,” Ness held out a hand in gratitude. They shook hands as Ness introduced himself, “I’m Ness.”

“Frank,” The flying man replied.

Another flying man stepped forward, “And I will be your determination.” Ness shook that flying man’s hand as well, “Pirkle.”

Ness scratched his head wondering why the Flying Men sounded familiar, “Alright then let’s go.”

Rock stood at the back of the room with his arms crossed and grin on his face, “Made some new friends?”

Ness nodded, “Yeah, they’re cool.” Ness waited a second to see if Rock would say anything else, but the stupid grin never left Rock’s face. He only shrugged as he turned and started walking away.

The two left the flying men’s home with Frank and Pirkle following close behind them. The fog hadn’t lifted at all from the narrow red path which stood just barely above the purple sea. The boys looked to each other to be sure the other was ready before they set foot onto the red ground. The red path was mushy beneath their feet as if it were soaked through by the purple ocean, “Eww…” Ness grumbled as he kicked some of it off.

“That’s not gonna do you any good,” Rock pointed out as he sloshed forward through the red swamp-like land.

Ness frowned but continued to trudge through the muck with the others. Inside the fog, it was hard to see more than ten feet in front of them, just enough to know the red path was continuing albeit remaining narrow. 

After a short time, a chill went down Ness’s spine with an exaggerated shiver.

Noticing Ness’s reaction Rock quietly asked, “What’s up?”

Ness shook his head, “I dunno, I just suddenly got a weird feeling like we’re being watched or something…”

Rock stopped walking and focused his gaze into the fog. There didn’t seem to be anything ahead of them. 

“It’s probably nothing,” Ness admitted.

Rock stopped Ness from continuing on, “No, listen.”

Ness waited a few seconds, “I don’t hear anything.”

Rock nodded, “Even the wind stopped.”

The flying men also seemed to be on guard.

Rock took a few cautious steps forward, but nothing seemed to be in front of them. A pair of disembodied eyes opened in the mist just beside the trail, “I see you!”

“Crap!” Startled, Ness jumped away from the eyes which floating ominously over the purple ocean

All four took a defensive stance and waited to see what the eyes would do.

“A true self can never be obtained so long as one seeks their acceptance in the eyes of others,” Frank blurted out of nowhere. 

Light began to shine from the pupils of the eyes, and once it reached a blinding intensity a lightning bolt shot out towards the group. Ness hopped back and almost fell into the purple ocean but Rock managed to grab onto his arm, “If that thing’s using lightning then the last place you want to be is underwater.”

Ness nodded and secured his footing, “What do we do?!”

“It’s trying to kill us right?” Rock assumed an aggressive stance.

“Yeah?” Ness still felt confused as he watched and waited.

Light energy gathered in Rock’s hand, “So we take it out first!”

“Oh,” Ness gulped, his hand went to his side with two fingers pointing out away from his body as electrical sparks formed at his fingertips. 

“COURAGE!” Frank jumped at the eyes, his hand curled into a tight fist as he drove it into faceless gazer.

The eyes closed for a moment as if trying to shake off this hit. When they opened again, they stared at Frank and electrical energy began building up in the pupils again, “I see you!”

Rock jumped in the way, “Not so fast!” He held up his hand which gave off a bright light directly in front of the floating eyes. Stunned, the eyes reeled back from the bright light. Rock turned to Ness, “Do it!”

Ness brought his glowing hand forward and pointed it at the floating eyes, “Thunder!” lightning clapped from Ness’s hand in a deafening roar and struck the stunned eyes. The electricity caused the eyes to snap open wide before they caught fire and disintegrated into nothingness. 

“You got it!” Rock cheered.

“Yes!” Ness beamed, obviously pleased with himself.

Rock patted Ness on the back, “Good thing magic still works here huh?”

Ness looked worried for a moment, “I didn’t even think about testing it before trying it.”

“That’s probably why it worked,” Rock beamed much to Ness’s bewilderment.

Ness gave Rock an odd look but Rock didn’t seem to notice as they turned to continue on.

Almost immediately in front of them, they found a disembodied set of lips. The giant lips formed a kissing motion and approached Ness but he jumped back and out of the way before the lips could claim him.

“Gross!” Ness shouted as the lips flew past his side.

“Well, there were eyes, so I suppose a mouth had to be somewhere,” Rock tried making light of the situation while Ness stared at the lips in disgust.

“A heart cannot be fulfilled without opening itself to the affections of others,” Pirkle’s odd comment provoked another odd glance from Ness before Ness blasted the lips away, not giving them a chance to try and kiss anyone else.

“You okay?” Rock checked to make sure.

“I’m fine, that was just disgusting,” Ness shook as a chill overtook him but then started walking again. 

The four continued on through the thick mist. Knowing for sure there were enemies lurking about kept the group silent as they listened for any approaching noises. 

Ness hopped forward and put a hand on Rock’s shoulder to stop him. The group came to a halt and listened to what sounded like rocks tumbling. 

“What’s-?” Ness tried listening harder as the sound got closer. 

All four prepared themselves for whatever was coming. Rock lowered his stance slightly, “It’s rolling- but skipping.”

From out of the fog a huge six-sided dice rolled into view. It stopped in front of the group with the six pointed up.

“The cheat is a betrayer of trust and destroyer of friendships, one must always uphold honor and valor,” Pirkle spoke without being prompted. 

The top of the dice opened and a head popped out as well as arms at the side. 

“Oh!” Rock nodded to himself, “It’s a loaded dice.”

The strange dice man pulled out a horn and blew into it. Immediately another dice came rolling in through the fog, also landing on the six, and formed a second dice man.

“Once one gives in to the temptation, the path to repetition only becomes simpler and more enticing,” Frank added.

“Well then-” Rock shook his head, “Let’s get rid of them before they call anymore friends!”

Pirkle leapt forward first at the dice on the left, “DETERMINATION!” His fist collided with the flat surface of the three side and knocked rolled the dice back a bit. 

The other dice leaped forward with a stick and thumped Frank in the knee. 

“Hey!” Ness put his hand against the dice that hit Frank,” THUNDER!” The strong bolt blasted the dice far off the stretch of mushy ground and into the fog.

Rock rushed in against the remaining dice. It tried to swing at him with another stick but Rock ducked out of the way and got underneath its cubed body. He got his hands on the flat underside of the dice and lifted it up in the air over his head. With a simple motion, he tossed it off the path and into the purple sea where it floundered a bit but then sank and didn’t return. 

“This place is turning out to be really weird.” Ness couldn’t help but voice as the group returned to walking down the wet path. 

Rock agreed, “Yeah, but hopefully we’re almost through this.”

The group crept forward again; it was merely a waiting game now to see what sort of challenge would come at them next. The trail continued on and all four walked for what could have easily been over an hour. 

Ness couldn’t help but sigh, “I haven’t seen anything interesting for a while…”

Rock stopped walking and laughed, “We’re in a place like this and you say you haven’t seen anything interesting? What about that weird sphere just floating in the air over there, or those crystal columns jetting out from the water over there?”

Ness waved Rock off, “We’ve seen a bunch of those here already, I mean something different than what we’ve been seeing for the last hour.”

“I know, it just sounded funny,” Rock grinned and looked forward again, “It is a little boring just walking in a straight line that doesn’t seem to be leading us anyw-”

“AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!” A sharp cry startled both boys into jumping forward.

“Pirkle!” Ness shouted as he saw the flying man had been struck from behind by what looked like a model of molecules in a roughly human formation. 

“Second hand knowledge,” Frank spoke enigmatically again, “when learning without experience, one should be prepared to be proven wrong.”

Pirkle’s body writhed on the ground for a moment then stopped moving completely. His still form sank into the ground before a small tombstone and cross rose out of the ground in his place.

Ness looked back and forth from the cross on the ground to the molecule man, “I don’t understand what’s going on!”

“You can figure this out,” Rock encouraged before he tried punching at their atomic enemy. 

The strange molecule man dodged around Rock but Frank came running up as well, “COURAGE!” 

The molecule man got around Frank’s attack and managed to land a hit first. The colors of the world inverted for a split second as Frank took the hit and fell to the ground. He writhed slightly before he too sank into the ground and another tombstone took his place.

Ness wasn’t sure how to feel about any of this besides confused. He charged more lightning energy in his hand and blasted it at the molecule personification. The strange being spasmed for a bit but Ness didn’t let off the energy and continued to shock it with an increasing amount of electricity until the protons and neutrons of the molecules broke apart and the entire being collapsed. 

Both Ness and Rock looked around for a moment processing that the assistance that had accompanied them thus far on the dangerous road was gone. 

“Should we go back?” Rock asked.

“No,” Ness turned and looked forward, “We need to keep going.”

Rock returned to Ness’s side and gave him a reassuring smile, “We can do this.”

Ness nodded and the two continued on. 

The fog didn’t let up in what felt like the miles that followed. If anything it worsened to the point where the boys could barely see the next step in front of them. Rock reached out and took Ness’s hand. Ness jumped slightly from initial shock when contact was made and looked at Rock strangely for a moment but he explained, “We need to make sure we don’t get separated in this mess.”

“Okay,” Ness gripped Rock’s hand tighter as the fog overtook everything almost completely. Moistness clung to their skin and kept them cool while walking the long road that was now winding across the purple sea. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed when the fog finally began to thin, “I think I can see again!”

Both boys stopped as they looked around and found themselves surrounded by a twisted forest. The plants weren’t quite trees, but large curled stalks of something like tentacles. The mushy red path continued to cut through the unrecognizable forest. 

“I don’t like this,” Ness whispered.

“It’s different,” Rock commented. Even though they could see out a little further than before Ness had yet to let go of Rock’s hand. 

“What’s that?” Ness peered ahead and could see the shape of a person in the mist. As they approached it became clear that standing in front of them was the spitting image Ness himself. 

The other Ness waved as they approached, “Hey me!” 

Ness stared at his fully clothed doppleganger for a moment with his mouth agape, “That’s me?”

The other Ness took a few steps closer, “Am I really that slow? Apparently you don’t even understand that the enemies you faced so far represent your need for acceptance, tension towards affection, the guilt you harbor, and the uncertainty you feel.”

Ness’s eyebrows furrowed as he thought about what his copy was telling him, “What are you talking about?”

The other Ness only smiled coyly at the naked boy.

“Be careful,” Rock warned as he kept a close eye on the newcomer.

Ness was feeling freaked out staring at himself, “What do you want?!”

The clothed Ness came closer and leaned on Ness’s shoulder, “I found something that you lost, I thought you might like it back.”

Not sure how to respond in this situation Ness remained quiet for a moment. The other Ness seemed perfectly happy to engage Ness in a staredown. His hand began to make circles in the moisture still clinging to Ness’s skin.

The moment was awkward for Ness as he finally asked, “What did you find?”

The clone pointed towards a box near one of the twisted tentacle trees, “It’s right in there.”

Very cautiously, Ness separated himself from both his copy and Rock and stepped over to the box. He opened it up and reached inside to pull out a purple bycocket hat. He had to blink a few times as he looked it over, “My dad’s old hunting hat?”

The other Ness sauntered closer to Ness. He took the hat from Ness’s hands and draped it over the naked boy’s head, “It used to mean so much to you, you were so happy the first time your dad put that hat on your head, but then you just went and lost it one day, shameful.”

Ness put his hand up to the hat, “I did lose this hat- I don’t even remember when I lost it…”

The other Ness shook his head, “You’ve lost far more than that hat.”

The look on Ness’s face hardened as he turned back to his double, “What are you talking about?”

“You know it,” The other Ness’s face darkened as he leaned towards the real one, “You lost who you are, you don’t even have a site on the person you want to be for yourself. What do you think someone like you grows up to become?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rock stepped between the two and held onto the real Ness, “You don’t need to listen to this guy, you’re a good person.”

The other Ness poked his head over Rock’s shoulder, “Who happens to be a liar, a cheater, and a thief! Not exactly the characteristics of someone I’d call pure of heart.”

“Shut up!” Ness pushed Rock out of the way and tackled his doppelganger.

The clothed Ness let his eyes wander over the real Ness’s body, “All your secrets are laid to bare and what do we have? A little boy who’s scared without his mommy who doesn’t want to take responsibility for making his own decisions!”

Ness growled but, before he could respond, his doppelganger simply sank through the ground, out of his grasp. An eerie chuckling echoed through the tentacle forest in a frightening tone. “Do you want to believe something different? Let’s see if you can!” The tentacle-like trees suddenly came to life and moved wildly on their own.

“What the hell?” Again Ness was frightened and confused as the tentacle vines reached for both he and Rock. The boys tried jumping out of the way but the vines were too quick and wrapped several times around their torsos. With a mighty heave both boys were lifted high into the air. The force of the ascent pulled the air from their lungs for a moment before they plunged back down to the surface and pulled through the purple ocean.

Neither boy could see under the murky water. They both felt the tentacles leave their bodies and immediately they swam for the surface as fast as they could. Once breached, they took deep breaths and looked around. No longer outside, they found themselves in some kind of underground cavern.

Ness squinted as he tried to peer through the darkness, “Where are we now?”

The voice of the other Ness echoed above them, “The Sea of Eden, the heart of Magicant! This is where your real nightmare begins!”

Both Ness and Rock caught sight of a shadow jumping across stalagmites and swam after it. The water became shallow enough for the boys to stand so they were able to wade through the end of the cavern.

“It looks like it’s getting wider, but I can’t see anything,” Ness complained as he looked from side to side.

The other Ness’s echoing voice responded, “Let’s shed some light on the situation then.”

Ness and Rock jumped as a previously unseen torch lit next to them. A series of torches then began to light one at a time. The light revealed elaborate columns in a great cavern that touched the stone ceiling. In the center of the cavernous room emerged a shadow, completely invisible until the torches around it lit. The torches flickered over the shadow revealing the twisted grin of the other Ness, now he too stood completely naked before the other two, but his skin took on a state of shimmering gold rather than flesh. Even his eyes glistened like polished metal under the dim light of the flickering flames. He didn’t move and only stared down at the two wet boys before him, “You will be judged.”

For a moment Ness was frozen. While everything was strange and unexplainable, it was somehow all terrifyingly familiar, “What-?”

“Do you recognize me now?” The smile on the golden Ness grew wider into a look of near insanity, “Your nightmare?”

Ness gulped but tried to remain strong.

“That’s right, put on a show for your friend here like you’re a big boy,” the golden Ness snickered, “Tell me though, are you crying on the inside? Wishing your mommy was here to hold you?”

Purple eyes widened slightly as the golden Ness began to slowly approach, “I am scared- but that-”

“So run home then,” The golden Ness crossed his arms, “It’s so obvious you don’t belong out here, you don’t know how to do anything for yourself, do you? Everything you accomplish was either with someone else’s help or through tricking your way through it.” Foggy clouds rolled in from behind the golden Ness. Images began to appear on the fog as if being projected by some invisible force. Images of Ness’s past. Many of the images were instances Ness had stolen food or items from store keeps in Onett, or times when Pokey or Ninten talked him into helping them on one of their schemes, or when he cheated at sports by using a yew paddle to hit the ball farther than the other kids. 

Ness was quiet for a long moment, and then his face turned downcast, “I don’t- I really don’t belong.”

A gleam flickered in the grinning golden Ness’s eye. The water which had been knee height began to rise and small waves formed at its surface. The Huge toothy smile never faded from the golden Ness’s face, but even as he stood there looking completely calm, his golden skin began to melt from his body leaving a smiling skull underneath. One shining golden eye continued to stare out from the skull. Despite the smile, the eye was filled with judgment. Ness’s mouth dropped open as he backed away, “Oh did that do it? You recognize me now huh? That’s your nightmare isn’t it? You know it’s true, that one day your destiny is to become- me!”

Rock forced Ness to look up at him, “No one’s perfect Ness. No one is expecting you to be perfect but you. You’re a good guy and you need to understand that now!”

“Why are we even out here Rock? Where are we going to go? I want to go home!” Ness confessed how he was feeling and couldn’t stop the emotion from escaping now that he’d voiced it. His shoulders quivered as he tried to hold himself back from crying. 

The turbulence in the water became worse. 

Rock pulled Ness into him, “Listen Ness, it’s okay to feel homesick, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. I miss my home a lot. And there’s nothing to be ashamed of in getting emotional and crying when you have to. I won’t judge you or think less of you for it. Don’t let yourself fall into darkness, I know that’s not who you really are.”

Ness stared at Rock in silence unsure of what to say or what to do.

“If this isn’t a Kodak moment,” The skeleton shrugged and somehow blinked the golden eye that floated in the hollowness of its left eye socket. “If you keep following the path you’re on kid, you’re destined to do horrible things.”

Ness quivered as the skeleton took a few steps closer, “It’s a beautiful day outside, birds are singing, flowers are blooming- On days like these, kids like you...”

Both Ness and Rock looked scared as the fire of the torches intensified, filling the cavern with intense heat.

“...Should be burning in hell!” A golden glow came over Ness’s skeleton as he pointed a finger at the boys releasing a beam of energy. Ness and Rock jumped in opposite directions as the beam hit the water, evaporating all it hit immediately.

“SHUT UP!” Anger flooded through Ness as he ran up along the left side of the skeleton, sparks of energy built up in his hand as he jumped out of the purple water and fired his thunderbolt at his nightmare. 

“What?” The skeleton never stopped smiling as the lightning bolt approached. There was a strange shift in the room that was almost unnoticeable, but when it ended the skeleton had moved several feet to the side without actually moving. “You thought I was just gonna stand there and take it?” 

“How?” Ness shook his head trying to get a grip on what his skeleton nightmare was even doing.

The golden eye glimmered, “If that’s the best you’ve got then you should give up on this little quest before it even begins.”

Rock tried his luck next as he jumped in to punch the skeleton from behind. The skeleton turned around almost instantaneously and caught Rock’s punch, “Nuh-uh,” The skeleton waved his free finger in Rock’s face, “I thought you knew better, this little challenge isn’t for you.” Rock looked surprised for a moment before that free finger curled up against a thumb and then flicked against Rock’s face with enough force to send him skipping along the water before crashing into a stalagmite.

“A skipping stone, get it? His name is Rock!” The skeleton laughed but Ness remained stoic and posed to fight. “No laughs today? You normally laugh at dumber jokes than that! Or do you do that only as a way to fail at making friends?”

Ness grit his teeth and clenched his fists tighter as he lunged at the skeleton again. With electricity built up in both fists, Ness resorted to throwing punches, but the skeleton dodged them all without hardly ever moving. 

“So uncreative, you’re never gonna make it in this world, just give up,” the purple water swirled around the two like a whirlpool. 

“I don’t- want to-” Ness admitted to both the skeleton and himself.

The skeleton stood quietly, it's smile and stare unwavering, “You sure about that? It’s risky business moving forward from here. So easy to fall into temptation and believe me, the monster in your future awaits.”

A stronger look came over Ness as he continued to throw punches at the skeleton, “I WON’T!”

“That’s new,” The skeleton’s eye gleamed as he dodged all of Ness’s punches, “It will be dangerous though, even I could have destroyed you fifty-seven times by now, and maybe I did.”

Ness grunted and opened his mouth to speak but the skeleton stopped him by saying, “Fifty-eight. You just don’t seem sure enough, so I’m going to save you a whole lot of trouble and stop this game right now!”

The whirlpool surrounding the two of them moved to the side over to where Rock was still watching the fight. Rock tried to jump out of the way but tentacles like the ones before lashed out from under the water, grabbed onto his wrists, and held him in place as the height of the whirlpool raised over his head and swallowed him whole.

“ROCK!” Ness shouted as he saw Rock look like he was drowning while being tied down inside the violent typhoon.

Ness’s skeleton cocked his head to the side, “So what’s it gonna be, are you gonna destroy me before he drowns and hope that you don’t become evil yourself, or are you going to give up on your friend, run home crying to your mommy like you always do?”

Ness held his hand forward as a huge bolt of lightning built in his palm. The skeleton held his arms out as if daring Ness to hit him, the wide grin never faltering from his skull. The lightning in Ness’s hand lit up the room much brighter than the torches as Ness readied the strike. Once he had all the power he needed though, he didn’t do anything. The skeleton lowered his arms and continued to stare at Ness as the electricity faded from the boy’s hand and he sank to his knees.

“You’re no hero, it’s time to go home kid,” the skeleton continued grinning.

“I-” Ness’s eyes were wide and his jaw quivered as he watched Rock struggle.

“Only a few more moments and then it will all be over,” Ness’s nightmare skeleton didn’t laugh, only spoke as though he was pointing out the obvious.

Ness’s eyes solidified into a look of determination, “I’m coming!” He charged across the water toward the whirlpool.

“Oh!” The skeleton watched as Ness jumped into the typhoon with Rock, “I suppose it didn’t occur to me that you could just choose to die together.”

Ness reached for the tentacle holding Rock in place. He grabbed the end of it and pulled as hard as he could while still holding his breath. The tentacle wouldn’t budge no matter how much force Ness pulled on it with. 

Giving up on that tentacle, Ness tried the other one but with no better result. Rock smiled softly at Ness before his eyes closed and his head nodded to the side. Ness let out a scream under the water which pulled out all of his air as he shook his friend. Rock’s head limply rolled back and forth. Ness wrapped his arms around Rock’s back and he pulled himself into Rock’s chest, squeezing him tightly. 

Without air, Ness’s vision was going grey as well. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do!” was all he could think.

His eyes closed and things began to go black. 

“You’re a good guy Ness.” Ness’s eyes snapped open again as he heard Rock’s words repeating in his head. “No one expects you to be perfect, just be you and I know you’ll be fine.”

Ness snapped his eyes open as he remembered. All the pieces of the day were starting to come together, “Welcome to Magicant, a world you created.” 

From within the vortex, a pillar of light shot out to the ceiling of the cave. The skeleton put a hand up to shield the light from entering his eye as the insanely bright light overtook everything in the room. There was a splash-like explosion and a streak of light which caused the skeleton to turn around and find Ness with Rock still held close to him on the other side of the cavern, “What did you-?”

Rock coughed out water from his lungs while still being held tight in Ness’s arms. The violet-eyed boy looked over Rock’s shoulder at the skeleton who looked bewildered for the first time.

A smile returned to the skeleton, “So now you think you can defy fate and be a hero after all! Keep playing like that and you may just have a chance.”

Ness set Rock down gently before he stood with a look of courage and determination, “I get it now, Rock knew this whole time, but you literally are my nightmare, what I created out of my own fear. This whole world is responding the way it is because of how I feel.”

“Uhoh-” The skeleton grinned, “You think it’s so simple?”

“Doesn’t need to be simple,” Ness responded, “I know what’s going on now and I know what I need to feel. Everything changed so fast and I let it get to me. I needed to feel it in myself that I can do this, that I can go out there and make a difference, that I’m not destined for failure, or becoming something evil and horrible. I’m me! And no nightmare is gonna change that!”

The skeleton of Ness’s nightmare was about to make another wisecrack when suddenly Ness was no longer standing in front of him. A light was shining from behind which caused his shadow to glow along the water. He turned around as Ness drove his fist in an uppercut to the skeleton’s jaw. A beam of lightning energy shot out of the ground as Ness’s fist came up and completely enveloped the skeleton boy. Only the outline of the bones and the golden eye could be seen through the pillar of lightning as Ness blew his nightmare away. 

The light cleared and left no trace of the skeleton behind. 

Rock pushed himself up and grinned to Ness while throwing a thumbs up. Ness returned the gesture and mouthed, “Thank you.”

Then, nothing else happened. The two continued to stand in the large cavern with only the sound of torches and slow trickling of water to fill their ears.

“So-” Ness finally put his hand down, “Now what?”

Rock stood up and shrugged, “No idea, I thought you’d wake up and that would be that.”

The fog rolled in again from behind the throne causing the two boys to watch with mild worry as it stopped and an image formed on it again, this time of the skull with the golden eye, “Yup, very good, you totally won.”

“Umm-” Ness scratched his head, “Seriously?”

“Of course, would I lie?” The skull laughed, “I just wanted to tell you one last thing.”

Ness and Rock looked at each other and then back at the skull projection, “What’s that?”

“Don’t forget, don’t ever forget the courage and determination you found here today. Learn from your mistakes and do what you feel is right, not what you feel others have imposed on you.”

Ness blinked, “Okay, I won’t, anything else?”

“Nope that’s it,” a skeleton hand formed in the projection and waved at them, “bye now!”

Another whirlpool formed beneath Ness’s and Rock’s feet. “WHOA!” Ness shouted as he lost his footing from being blasted up by the typhoon. They were shot high into the air, far past where the roof of the cavern should have been. They were being carried up so quickly the force of their movement kept them pinned to the top of the rising pillar of water. 

Ness grabbed onto Rock’s arm. Rock looked over to Ness concerned for a moment, but Ness looked back at him with a smile on his face. Rock grinned too as they were shot up toward a growing light.

Ness woke up with a start. He looked around and saw he was in some kind of cave. He looked down and saw he was still wearing his tattered tunic from before. He tried to move and found his hand was entwined with Rock’s.

Rock was still wearing his singed tunic pants from the day before which left Ness wondering for a moment. Ness shook his friend, “Hey, Rock! Wake up, are you okay?”

Rock’s face scrunched before his eyes opened. He sat up as well and looked around, “Where are we?”

“Is this the cave by Onett?” Ness asked unsure himself.

“I don’t think so-” Rock climbed to his feet and looked around the dim cave.

Ness bit his lip as he thought about something before getting up, “Hey Rock, I’m trying to figure out if I had a dream or did it really happen?”

Rock tilted his head to the side, “A dream huh? What was it about?”

“I-” Ness started to shift but his hand rubbed against something soft. He picked it up and looked at it more closely, “My dad’s hunting hat!”

Rock grinned, “Didn’t you lose that a while back? How did it end up here?”

Ness blinked a few times in awe at the tattered hat, but eventually put it on his head and climbed to his feet. He was still looking confident as he looked up towards a light that was filtering through the top of the cave, “There’s definitely light coming through from up there.” The two climbed up the wall of the cave to the source of the light. 

“I think I can see out,” Rock hopped from boulder to boulder approaching the top faster.

“I wonder how long we were asleep,” Ness hurried to keep up with Rock as he climbed. 

The two poked their heads out of the ground and found a lush green landscape. Trees dotted the green field, birds flew high above, and the sound of a nearby waterfall filled their ears. 

Ness turned and his eyes widened as he grabbed onto Rock, “Look!”

Both boys looked down the field behind them and saw a large castle built of grey bricks and a red roof. On the main tower at the front of the castle was a stained glass window of a lady in a pink dress.

* * *

**End Chapter**

Sorry for making this such a long chapter. I was tempted to break it into two chapters, but one - I wanted to get Magicant through quickly since a lot of people are unfamiliar with it, and two - a lot of what was going on was subtle and I knew it wouldn’t make any sense until it neared the end. 

Thanks a lot for putting up with this word spew. Let me know what you think of the story so far! Also please feel free to be my friend on any social app!


	5. One Fateful Knight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ness and Rock receive a warm welcome from the captain of the guard in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Thank you, everyone, who has reviewed so far! I try to take the time to reply to every review I get, so if you left me a review and are interested to see my response then check it out on Tumblr #TaroReplies!

**Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords**

After escaping the attack on Onett, Ness and Rock awoke and found themselves naked in the strange land of Magicant. Magicant seemed to resonate with Ness’s emotions; his doubts, fears, and self-conscious worries all manifested into more troubling conditions until they faced off against Ness’s Nightmare who became an eerie skeleton form who reveled in taunting Ness further. 

Though Ness had difficulty throughout the challenge, he found his courage and determination to go on before it was too late and stopped his skeleton counterpart from doing any more damage. Ness and Rock then escaped Magicant leaving Ness wondering if it was all just a dream. He didn’t have long to ponder as a large castle could be seen in the distance with a stained glass window in the front of a praying lady in a pink dress.

* * *

**Chapter 4: One Fateful Knight**

* * *

“Wow, where are we?” Ness gazed on at the castle still starry-eyed.

“That’s right, you’ve never seen a castle up close before, huh?” Rock leaned down and examined the plant life, “Aha! I thought so.”

“What?” Ness looked over Rock’s shoulder wondering what he was doing.

Rock held up a cluster of mushrooms, “You see the red coloring of these mushrooms with the white dots?”

Ness waved his hands as he backed away from the fungus in Rock’s hands, “Sorry, I’m not a big mushroom fan.”

“You don’t have to eat it,” Rock laughed, “But this type of mushroom only grows in one place, that means we must be in the actual Mushroom Kingdom.”

Ness’s mouth opened like he was about to say something but he stopped himself as he thought about it more and then tried again, “But- isn’t the Mushroom Kingdom- like  _ really _ far away from Eagleland?”

Rock nodded, “Other side of the continent.”

Ness scratched his head under his hat, “How’d we get here so fast?” 

“Don’t know,” Rock admitted, “but it works well for us, no one will be looking for us out this far.”

“That’s true.” Ness kept staring up at the castle with a blank look on his face.

Rock tried to get a look at Ness out of the corner of his eye as if gauging him for something.

After a long moment of silence passed Ness finally asked, “Can we go see the castle up close?”

Relief became apparent in Rock’s expression as he nodded, “Definitely, let’s check it out!”

The two boys walked the short distance up the road that led to the castle. The road ended at a stone bridge that arched over a large moat that surrounded the castle. Both Ness and Rock stood on the bridge and admired the large structure.

“Castles are cool,” Ness seemed genuinely fascinated at his first castle visit. 

“It’s kind of odd though…” Rock looked around the surrounding area.

Nothing seemed out of place to Ness, “What is?” 

Rock tilted his head and tapped on his chin in thought, “That this is a castle meant for the royalty of this kingdom, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around.”

Despite banners waving on top of the castle towers, there was no one around, no guards, no townspeople. Ness realized too that it was a little odd.

Both boys felt the temperature rising from behind. They turned around and saw a fireball falling towards them. 

“MOVE!” Rock pulled Ness out of the way as the fireball hit the ground where they had been standing and burst into a large green flame. 

“What the hell was that?!” Ness shouted in panic.

Rock looked down the field and pointed toward three fast approaching riders. The three warriors appeared to be riding giant green lizards which were dashing towards them quickly. The leader held his hand up towards the sky and green flames formed a ball over his palm, “They don’t look happy that we’re here.”

Another fireball was shot in their direction. Without much choice in direction, Rock pushed on the door to the castle. He seemed surprised that it opened and motioned for Ness to hurry inside. 

The two quickly pushed the door shut. They got a brief look at their pursuer who wore a knight’s full plate armor stained a green color. His lizard-like steed was also armored in green and had a tongue that draped far below its mouth as if it were hungry. The furious gaze of the green warrior pierced through the two boys as the door slid shut and blocked out the explosion. 

The door shook and heated up but withstood the attack from outside.

Immediately Rock braced himself against the door while Ness looked to the side of the door and noticed a barricade bar leaning against the wall, “Help me with this!”

“That’ll do it!” Rock grabbed onto the other end of the bar as the two picked it up and placed it over the brackets on either side of the door.

The door shook violently as soon as the barricade was down, “OPEN THIS DOOR AT ONCE!” 

Ness slowly backed away from the shaking door, “Seriously, what the hell is their problem?”

“Well-” Rock looked around the bright open lobby of the castle, “If I had to guess, they’re probably the guards of this castle.”

“Oh.” Ness realized that made some sense, “But they could have just said ‘hi’ or something, they didn’t have to start shooting.”

The shaking and yelling from the other side of the door didn’t cease.

Rock nodded, “Yeah, something is seriously wrong. But as long as they’re this angry we can’t just leave that way. We’re going to have to find another way out.”

“Right,” Ness helped Rock look around the first room they found themselves in. The ceiling was high with hallways leading left and right, stairs going up to a landing with more hallways leading left and right from the second floor. There were also at least five large doors against the back wall leading further into the castle. Ness gulped, “This place looks huge!”

“Yeah, so let’s try not to get lost,” Rock grinned as they stepped further into the castle. 

A burning smell reached their noses as the boys looked behind them and noticed the barricade on the door was being burned through from the outside. 

“Well,” Ness gulped, “I guess this means we don’t have time for the tour.”

“That way!” Rock picked a door that led behind the staircase and the two hurried down hoping to find a place to hide.

Behind the stairs led to a long corridor towards the back of the castle, and another set of stairs going further down into the castle cellar. “Maybe there’s a way out the back!” The two ran as fast as they could, passed what must have been the kitchen from the amount of serving trays piled up outside of it, through the straight hall, and jumped at the door to push it open. Though the two found sunlight, serenity, and a beautiful open sky, they were also surrounded by a thirty-foot high wall on all sides of the small courtyard.

“Damn!” Rock checked quickly at all the sides of the courtyard, but there was no other way out, “No good, we’ve gotta go back.”

The two reentered the castle and ran back towards the lobby area. The sounds of footsteps above them caused them to slide to a halt. Someone was taking the stairs up just over their heads. The two started backing up slowly hoping to find another door that might lead them to a way out. 

As Ness backed up he just barely bumped into a serving cart from the kitchen. His eyes opened wide in panic as he tried to turn and stop the trays on it from falling. He just missed the tray which had the domino effect of bumping into several other trays that knocked off their platters while making horribly loud clattering sounds.

Both Ness and Rock shut their eyes and went tense as the plate crashing rang out. The footsteps previously going up the stairs began to clamber downward. 

“Time to move!” Rock pushed Ness forward towards the stairs leading further down into the cellar. The door at the bottom of the stairs opened and the two hurried in, “I’m sure they’ll check down here, we gotta find someplace-”

“This way!” Ness called as he ran through a large opening to the right which appeared to be the castle’s water system. The tunnels under the castle were more like a labyrinth, and the water was getting deeper. 

Heavy splashing footsteps were definitely getting closer. Out of the corner of his eye, Rock caught sight of a room to his right with stairs going up to a door, and below it was a grating where water was flowing through. The duct behind it looked big enough to fit through if they could open it. He grabbed onto Ness while pointing at it to get the point across and the two of them hurried as silently as they could to pull the metal grate off before climbing in and pulling it shut behind them. 

The piping was narrow and Ness and Rock found themselves pushed up against each other while trying to both stay hidden and see who was chasing them. The two boys tried to control their breathing and remain quiet as the running footsteps neared just outside their hiding spot.

First, the knight in green plate armor ran into the corridor. After getting a better look at him the two could tell he was moderately tall and had a mustache under his helmet. Close behind him came two smaller warriors, one wore a blue checkered banner in front of his armor, while the other had a yellow checkered banner.

“I don’t hear anything over here,” the blue one said.

The green armored man nodded, “I could hear them running, but the sounds stopped not far from here.”

“The watergate control is just over that way,” The yellow one brought up. 

A nod was the only response the green armored man gave as the walked up the stairs beyond the boys’ sight. They could hear the creak of a metal door open and then close. 

Ness held his breath as he tried to listen for any other sounds. He unconsciously pressed harder against Rock’s bare chest to help ease his anxiety but the contact made his breathing harder to control. He and Rock continued to wait, but several minutes went by without a sound.

“Think they’re gone?” Ness’s voice a soft whisper so only Rock could hear.

“Hope so,” Rock replied as he crawled forward and pushed the grating open again. He climbed out and helped Ness up behind him. They started to slowly wade their way back out when the sound of a clearing throat froze them in their tracks.

Slowly Ness and Rock looked over their shoulders and saw the green armored man and his lackeys standing in front of the raised doorway. Ness realized they only opened the door and closed it in order to trick them. 

The green armored man held out a hand and called forth more flames.

Rock put up his hands, “Hold on a second, we weren’t here to cause any trouble, honest, we were just looking at the castle until you blasted at us in the first place!”

The man in green replied in a heavy accent, “You expect me to believe that you managed to make it past five defensive lines, undetected, just see the castle and not cause trouble?!” The green flames showed an anger building on the green man’s face.

“We didn’t really make it past the defenses so much as we-” Rock gulped at his own explanation, “sort of- tunneled underneath them- or got teleported- or something like that.”

The green warrior looked unimpressed, “The punishment for invading the royal grounds is execution!”

“WHOA!” The green man threw the fireball causing both boys to jump out of the way. The fireball hit the water and filled the room with steam. 

The green armored man pulled out a great-ax from behind his back and jumped high off the platform. Ness watched almost amazed at how high the man jumped as he came down at him from near the ceiling of the maze. Rock managed to push Ness out of the way with one hand and pull out one of his metal blade disks with the other to deflect the ax coming down over them.

“Not so innocent after all are you, assassin?” The green man swung again with his ax but Rock jumped back out of the way.

“These?” Rock laughed, “It’s dangerous out there, you gotta have something to defend yourself with against all the nutjobs that go around swinging axes at your head!”

The two warriors behind the green man rejoined his side and drew swords. The man in green pointed his hand forward and cast another green fireball towards the boys.

Rock stepped forward and threw his metal blade at the approaching fireball. The fireball exploded upon contact with the disk causing all three of the warriors to shield their faces and the disk to go flying into a wall where it became embedded with a loud clang.

“Come on!” Rock urged Ness and the two started running back out from where they came from.

“AFTER THEM!” They could hear the green man shouting behind but kept running. 

A fork in the labyrinth ahead made Rock slow slightly, “Was it left or right where we came from?”

Ness pointed to the left, “That way!”

The two ran as fast as they could, the sound of their pursuers still only a turn behind them. A light ahead signaled their return to the well-lit portion of the castle cellar. Once out of the water, Ness turned around.

“What are you doing?” Rock asked while urging Ness to hurry.

“I’m done with this,” once the warriors were back in view, the green armored man formed another fireball but Ness kneeled down first and put his hands to the water, “THUNDER!” A blinding light was given off by the entire water channel as the three warriors were caught by the conductive electricity. Ness pulled his hands out of the water and the three warriors fell back into the water, at least stunned for the time being. “I hope you all rust!” Ness shouted as he turned and started running again.

“Way to go!” Rock high fived his friend, “That should buy us enough time to get out of here!”

Ness beamed, happy for the praise and glad he was able to help, “Definitely!”

The two boys ran back up the stairs towards the front of the castle. They were back in the grand lobby when they noticed something was different. Rock looked confused as he stopped running, “Is it brighter in here than it was before?”

Ness also noticed the difference, “Yeah, it’s coming from…” He walked toward the center of the room, “up there.” He pointed up towards a mural of the sun and found himself being levitated off the ground, “WHOA!”

“Ness!” Rock ran and jumped onto Ness, grabbing onto him just as everything turned white. 

Air, just the sound of air could be heard as the boys' vision slowly returned to them. They rubbed their eyes and then realized they were falling. They were somehow insanely high up off the ground and falling fast.

“Oh shit!” Ness watched wide-eyed as the ground approached.

Rock also panicked. “Oh man, was that some kind of trap?” He looked all around trying to find a way out of hitting the ground with a splat. 

“Hey look!” Ness pointed to something red falling within a beam of light not far from where they were, “I think I can get it!” Angling himself to catch air properly, Ness started inching his way closer to the falling object. 

Rock tried to stay near but seemed to have less control over his falling movement. He had to yell over the sound of air whooshing past their ears, “What is it?”

“It looks like-” Ness tried getting closer, “A hat?”

“A hat- right- because that makes sense,” Rock grumbled sarcastically as he looked down again. A castle tower was approaching fast through the clouds.

Ness slowly drifted towards the red hat at a much slower pace than they were all falling at, “Almost!”

Rock gulped as he saw Ness’s fingertips reach for the hat while the tower of the castle was coming up just below them, “I sure hope that actually does something otherwise we’re-”

“Got it!” Ness shouted and again blinding light filled their vision until everything went white. 

“OOF!” Both boys hit the ground with a hard thump, but nowhere near as hard as they should have after falling such a height. 

Ness opened his eyes and checked the item he’d grabbed, “Hey look, there’s an “M” on the front.”

Rock rolled over and took a closer look, “I guess it’s like how some people mark their names on their clothes.”

A loud dong went off behind the boys, startling them for a moment. They finally took a look at their surroundings and saw they were inside a large foyer with a great clock behind them and a staircase leading up to a wide double door.

As the tolls of the bell finished ringing, the large doors atop the stairs opened.

Ness and Rock watched the door carefully, but there didn’t appear to be anyone nearby, “Should we- umm?”

Rock nodded, “It looks like we’re being invited up.”

Cautiously the two boys made their way up the stairs and slowly peeked into the next room only to find many more stairs leading straight up. 

“I wonder where this goes-” Rock was the one looking nervous which was something Ness wasn’t used to.

“Only one way to find out,” Ness started up the stairs with Rock close behind. 

At first, the two walked, but the staircase was so long they couldn’t see the top. Ness became impatient and started skipping steps trying to get up faster. Rock kept pace and was hopping steps alongside him.

“Do you think we’re still in the castle?” Ness asked as he was almost jogging, “How far up can these go?”

Rock tried running up the stairs and passed Ness, “I’m not sure, but you’d think you could see the top by now.”

Ness stopped and looked back down, “Rock! Stop!”

Rock hopped up a few more steps and stopped, “What is- the hell?” The two boys looked behind them and saw that after all the running they did up the stairs, the bottom of the staircase was still just behind them. 

“That-” Rock walked back down about ten steps and was back on the landing at the bottom, “doesn’t make sense.” he looked around to make sure it really was the room at the bottom of the stairs as he remembered it.

Ness took a look as well, “I know we went up at least five or six stories, no way were just a few feet from the bottom.”

Rock sighed, “It must be some kind of spell.” He looked more closely at the stairs themselves, “Like some kind of repeating space spell or something to make the stairs neverending.”

Ness kneeled on the stairs and examined them closely alongside Rock, “So what do we do?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Rock leaned back in thought.

Ness held his head as close to the stairs as he could and looked up to try and see the top, “So anything that goes up doesn’t actually make it to the top right?” 

Rock didn’t have a chance to answer as Ness pointed his hand up at the angle of the stairs. Rock shielded his eyes as a lightning bolt formed in Ness’s hand and he threw it. The bolt shot up the stairs and once it reached the edge of their vision both boys were surprised when it disappeared only to repeat the path from several feet in front of them and then became stuck in a loop. The bolt made several fast loops before it dissipated into darkness.

Ness blinked a few times unsure of what he just saw, “That was weird.” Rock nodded in agreement.

Again Ness held his hand forward, “I’m gonna try something else.” Ness concentrated and his hand began to spark. Bolts of static lit the room and cast wild flickering shadows on the walls. An incredible amount of electricity danced in Ness’s hands and once he felt it was enough he pointed it up the stairs again. A huge sustained bolt shot out from Ness’s hand. Once the bolt hit the edge of the repeating spell it began to loop again from just up the stairs where the boys stood.

Ness didn’t let the spell end, in fact, he intensified the bolt so it took up more area in the staircase. The looping spell began to cause the lightning bolt to feedback onto itself, making it even bigger and more powerful than Ness had originally created it to be. The sound of thunder was deafening as Ness pushed one more time to put everything he could into the bolt. 

“Keep it up!” Rock encouraged, “It looks like you’re overloading the spell!”

The very air around the staircase formed a series of splintering cracks. The lightning bolt made one final loop through the repeating spell and then looked as though it punched a hole through the center of the cracks. Like a shattering window, the cracks worked their way across the entire staircase before the image of the stairs broke into thousands of pieces and fell to the ground revealing the same staircase behind them.

Ness ended his lightning spell and everything calmed. After the shattering pieces of air disappeared, the staircase didn’t look any different than it did before. Nothing else seemed to have happened as the two boys stared up the steps.

Ness took in a few deep breaths, still recovering from the exertion, “Did that do anything at all?”

“I think it did!” Rock climbed a few steps and Ness hopped up quickly to stay at his side. This time after climbing a few dozen steps the next floor came into view, “That’s it!”

With renewed energy, the two bounded for the next floor. At the top of the stairs was a long room, a serene light filtered in through the stained glass window of the praying woman in pink high above the room. The first thing in the room was a long meeting table with many seats surrounding it. A layer of dust covered the table as if it hadn’t been used in a long while. At the back of the room under the window was a large portrait of the princess in the pink dress. 

Ness and Rock stood in front of the portrait. Ness pulled off his hat, “I’ve never seen a portrait drawn so lifelike.”

“Yeah, she looks so real,” Rock was awestruck as well by the beauty and detail of the painting. 

As the two boys examined the portrait closely, the eyes on the princess slowly opened.

The eyes on both boys widened in shock, “AHHH!” They both jumped back and took cover behind the chairs of the meeting table.

“Do not be frightened,” a light pitched but soothing voice came from the portrait.

Ness and Rock looked at each other again before they slowly emerged from behind the furniture and approached the portrait that was obviously moving now.

“How?” Rock gulped as he tried to look behind the portrait; it was completely flat as would be expected from a painting, “What kind of magic is this?”

The princess closed her eyes and nodded, “I was placed under a dark curse and sealed away within this painting, but there is no need to fear me, I would never hurt either of you.”

The voice was so sincere that immediately both boys were put at ease. Ness stepped a little closer, “Who are you?”

The lady in pink smiled, “I am Princess Peach, sovereign over the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“Oh wow!” Rock nodded as he recognized the name and bowed out of respect. Ness noticed Rock’s motions and tried to mimic them albeit clumsily. “What happened here? How long have you been trapped like this?”

The smile faded slightly from Peach’s face, “It was three years ago, The Mushroom Kingdom was one of the first targets of the newly formed Golden Empire.”

Ness and Rock shared another look, understanding that The Golden Empire has been causing a lot of trouble. Before anything else could be said, the sound of clanking armor was heard running up the stairs.

“They found us!” Ness put his hat back on and turned. Both he and Rock got ready to fight if need be.

The green armored man reached the top of the stairs. Behind him was a young man wearing a red and white checkered doublet. The man’s eyes locked onto the two boys and a new wave of anger flooded over him, “You DARE desecrate this place-”

“Luigi, that’s enough!” the green armored man stopped and kneeled before the painting.

“Your highness,” The man’s accented voice quivered as he spoke, “I apologize, these two somehow made it past our defenses, and I underestimated their abilities in the cellar.”

Peach shook her head, “These two boys are not the enemy, look.”

Luigi turned his gaze up towards Ness and noticed the red cap in the boy’s hand with the “M” embroidered on it, “Where did you get that?”

Ness gulped, “We were trying to get out of the castle and when we looked up at the painting of the sun it was like we got teleported to a place high in the sky where we were falling, and this hat was there so I grabbed it.”

“You understand now?” Peach grinned sweetly, “To have made it here with that, this boy has a heart not unlike your brother’s.”

Luigi stood and shook himself off, “He attacked my men and I-”

Ness bowed in apology, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you but I was really afraid you were going to hurt my friend Rock and me.”

“I would have killed you had I caught you,” Luigi still spoke menacingly but crossed his arms as he became quiet, “Just know, this country has already suffered greatly getting caught up in this legend of champions once before, we will not do so again.” Ness looked confused as Luigi turned, his cape ruffled and the young man behind him jumped aside to give him enough room as he marched towards the exit, “I will take my leave, the outposts may be in need of reinforcements by now.”

“Luigi,” Princess Peach managed to get the man to stop in his tracks.

Nervously, Luigi turned and bowed his head, “Yes milady?”

A tender smile grew on the Princess’s face, “Please come visit more often.”

Luigi closed his eyes and sighed, “I will make every effort.” He turned and began to descend the stairs. 

The other young man looked around the room, “Should I accompany Luigi or should I stay?”

The princess grinned at the young man, “Please stay Toad, I hope you don’t mind seeing to our visitor’s needs while they’re here.” Toad gave a slight smile before he moved to the back of the room and waited patiently.

Peach turned to her two guests, “Now where were we? Oh yes-” She straightened out as if getting more comfortable within the portrait, “Three years ago, the world was a much more peaceful place, the various kingdoms were thriving, and though tribulations existed there were heroes willing to stand up and fight for the people.” 

Ness and Rock sat down in front of the painting and listened intently.

“During this time a legend was due to come to fruition, six heroes, each chosen by one of the six prime elements were to gather and bring the world into a magical harmony. This is necessary as the primary elements are naturally opposed to each other and will erupt into chaos should they go unchecked for too long.” Peach looked down at Ness, “That hat you hold in your hands belonged to the Champion of Fire,” her voice lowered into a sigh as she said, “His name was Mario.”

Ness’s face lit up as he took in the story, “Mario!”

Rock nodded, “I’ve heard a lot about Mario- wait- you called that other soldier Luigi?!”

Peach smiled sadly, “Yes, his younger brother, please forgive him. You see, three years ago when the ceremony was set for the champions to bring harmony to the magic of the world they were- interrupted.” Peach had to think for a short moment, “When the champions were at their weakest, they were attacked. There are evil forces at play who aspire to great power, and our world has none greater than that of the raw force of the elements. During the attack, however, there was one last unexpected safeguard to stealing the primary element’s powers. Each element took their champion and went into hiding across the planet. Sadly, without our heroes, many nations were left without their defenders and were unprepared for the ferocity in which entities such as The Golden Empire began to expand. Our Mushroom Kingdom was one of the first targets. Once composed of eight autonomous duchies within the kingdom, all of them fell to the empire. When the empire reached the castle I had no choice but to evoke the protection of the stars over the last remnants of the kingdom who came seeking shelter. Though the castle was preserved, I was caught in a dark spell that sealed me within this painting. Since then Luigi has fought hard to reclaim enough land to produce the resources necessary for our remaining people. Though it seems the empire has set their sights on other targets and the small portion of land we have left is no longer of much concern to them.”

Ness stood back up, “Yes, they attacked my home town Onett just a day ago!”

Peach sighed, “And I’m afraid Eagleland may very well fall soon, they have little in the way of defending their outlying towns and will be unprepared for the influx of refugees moving inward.” 

“My family is still there,” Ness’s eyes and fists clenched tight, “Is there anything that can be done to stop them?”

“Yes,” Peach’s warm smile helped Ness calm down again, “Like the champions who came before, the elements have chosen a new set of champions to complete the ritual of harmony. Once all six of the new heroes gather they will be able to summon the power of the primary elements and rid the land of all that threaten peace.”

The story was starting to come together in Ness’s head, “So if we can find the new champions like Mario was then we’ll be able to stop the Golden Empire and save Eagleland and everywhere else.” Determination flashes in Ness’s eyes as he stood, “There are six of them, one for every element. How do we find them?”

“Ness-” Rock slowly got up as he thought about how to explain to Ness what he needed to know, “This is what your mom, what everyone was talking about.”

Still not comprehending, Ness tilted his head to the side, “What my mom was talking about?”

“When we left Onett, your mom said you’re special, it chose  _ you _ ,” Rock put his hands on Ness’s shoulders, “We need to find  _ five  _ more champions because the new Champion of Lightning is  _ you _ .” Ness took a moment to grasp what his friend just told him. He looked towards the portrait of the princess who gave him a small smile and nodded.

Ness’s mouth hung open, almost quivering as he tried to wrap his head around the words his best friend had told him. Ness took a step back and shook his head, “I can’t be it, I mean, I’d know if I was something like that right?”

“Do you remember when the empire attacked?” Rock tried to explain patiently, “You found a greater power within yourself to fight them than you’ve ever had before. Enough to take down entire doomships in a single shot. No ordinary lightning user can do that.”

“I just-” Ness tried to find his words, “I’ve only ever been normal, and now  _ I’m _ one of the ones who’s supposed to save the world? I was just barely getting comfortable with having to save Onett.”

Rock couldn’t help himself and laughed, “Well- then as long as you’re saving one thing then you might as well go all the way, right?”

Ness’s mouth fell open as the notion of saving the world felt so overwhelming to him. He took a deep breath and tried to stay composed, “Okay, so let’s say I am this  _ Champion _ guy, what am I supposed to do?”

“It is a difficult task before you,” Peach began again, “Because the ceremony was already interrupted once, gathering the power of the elements will be even more difficult to do a second time. The essence of each element crystallized during the ceremony and broke into many fragments. As the Champion of Lightning, it will be up to you to collect the crystal fragments of lightning and restore the elemental force to its original state before the ceremony can continue.”

“I did find a crystal yesterday, on the mountain where Pokey and Picky took me,” Ness recalled the event, “It was glowing so bright when I got close to it. I could feel more power coming from it than anything I’ve ever felt before, but then it disappeared.”

“It didn’t disappear,” Peach shook her head, “it was absorbed into you, I can sense its presence within you, feeding into you it’s energy. You feel it don’t you?”

The concept seemed foreign to Ness at first, that something like that could be inside him. He became quiet in thought and listened to his own breathing for a moment and closed his eyes to try and feel inward. It was difficult to tune out even the things he was barely aware of normally, such as the feeling of his clothes and his own heartbeat. He realized though these were things he was feeling so much more acutely than before. He focused on these sensations and pushed past them. He began to feel it, a sensation like a buzzing coming from deep within him, filling him, energizing him. In his mind’s eye he finally saw it, a crystal lying mostly dormant within himself, he was linked to it like they were sharing a single lifeforce. “I didn’t- I didn’t  _ want _ to believe it before, but I have felt something in me the last few days.”

“Remember now that it’s part of who you are,” Peach’s eyes closed slowly as she began to look a little tired.

Ness looked more determined, “Okay so I’m one of the champions, what do I have to do?”

Peach explained, “The journey ahead will be long and having made enemies with The Golden Empire it will also be very dangerous, but you must join the other five champions, and all of you must collect the shards of your elemental crystals.”

An important question crossed Rock’s mind, “Do you know of a way to help us find the other shards or the other champions?”

“Please hold up Mario’s hat,” Peach instructed as she lifted a hand forward as if she was touching the barrier on her side of the painting. 

Ness held Mario’s hat close to Peach’s hand and the hat gently lifted on its own and gave off a bright glow. The light receded and the hat returned to Ness’s hands. Ness felt a slight tug as if the hat was trying to pull him in a certain direction.

Peach let out a deep breath looking even more tired than before, “I’m afraid I don’t have much power left while trapped in this painting, but that hat once belonged to the Champion of Fire. It will now guide you toward fire’s new champion.”

“Are you alright?” Ness asked out of concern for the portrait princess. 

Peach smiled sweetly, “There’s no need to worry, it’s just difficult to act while in this state.” Peach looked up at the young man who was still standing silently at the back of the room, “Toad, we cannot let these young heroes venture unprepared.”

Toad stepped forward, “What would you like me to do your majesty?”

Peach pointed her gloved hand down into the castle, “These two need clothes, armor, weapons, supplies, anything we can spare them. There is a locked room in the armory where the Wizard of Light left many mysterious and rare materials. Can you please-”

Rock’s eyes widened and the world slowed around him for a moment. He looked almost disoriented as he stepped closer to the painting, “Did you say- the Wizard of Light?  _ THE _ Wizard of Light was here?”

The princess nodded, “Yes, he was here just after the kingdom was attacked and assisted us with creating defenses for the castle.”

“What’s wrong?” Ness wasn’t sure what to make of the way Rock’s mood changed.

A look of understanding reached Peach’s face and then immediately melted into sympathy, “Toad, could you go ahead and show Ness to the armory, I’m sure Rock will join him shortly.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Toad stepped up to Ness, “Please follow me this way.”

Ness looked worried as he reached out to touch Rock’s shoulder, “Are you okay?”

“Of course,” Rock forced a smile to help Ness feel better, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll be down in just a second.”

Ness looked uneasy by tried to grin reassuringly before stepping away from his friend. Toad was already walking down the stairs, so Ness followed closely. Princess Peach waved weakly as Ness looked back once more.

Past the room with the great clock was another doorway with more stairs descending further down into a roundabout room with several branching hallways. “It’s just over here,” Toad opened a door into a room with gigantic mirrors. Toad reached for a torch sitting atop a decorative pedestal and twisted it several times. Ness jumped with a start as the wall opened up into a secret room.

Toad walked in and motioned to the chests in the room, “Pick a box, its contents will help you on your way.”

“Thank you,” Toad stayed back as Ness looked around the room. He peeked inside the boxes and found swords and gauntlets and spikes and reams of fabric.

Ness got caught up looking through things and didn’t hear clanking footsteps approaching, “All of these weapons were here this entire time.”

“Luigi,” Ness jumped back, still unsure what to make of the man.

Luigi entered and held his hand over one of the gauntlets as if he were sensing it, “I see, these aren’t just normal pieces of armor, they’re magically imbued. These could turn the tides of many a battle. Most definitely left here by The Wizard of Light.”

Overcoming a bit of apprehension, Ness asked, “Who is The Wizard of Light?”

Luigi pulled his hand back from the gauntlet and shook his head, “He is a sage from a far off land across the ocean. If not for him we would have been unable to defend what small portions of our kingdom are still under our control outside the castle.”

“He sounds pretty great,” Ness bit his lip as he rubbed his hand over a soft cloth.

“FOOL!” Luigi pulled Ness’s hand from the fabric.

“I’m sorry!” Ness took a quick step back but saw the look on Luigi’s face soften.

“Don’t touch an item within this room without knowing what it does,” Luigi pointed out a large sword with intricate symbols etched into the blade, “As I said, these items are magical, an armory such as this could win wars.”

Not fully understanding, Ness looked to Luigi with confusion, “Then why don’t you use these weapons to fight back the empire?”

Luigi sighed, “I was unaware that this room even existed, and without knowledge of how such things work I wouldn’t dare touch them either.” he glanced almost menacingly at Toad who gulped but remained where he stood, “Though if the Princess withheld knowledge of this room from me for so long then it can only be for one reason.”

“What’s that?” Ness asked curiously.

“The Wizard of Light intended for these items to be used by someone else.” Luigi crossed his arms and began to leave the room.

“Wait, please,” Luigi stopped but didn’t turn around to face Ness. “Umm- I’m sorry if this is none of my business, but how hard has it been? Fighting the empire?”

Luigi sighed and slowly looked over his shoulder at the boy, “It’s like fighting a plague. They come without warning, strike hard and fast, their warriors are some of the strongest in the world. And once they have brought the people to their knees they convince them that subjugation is what’s best for them.”

Ness’s mouth dropped, “That’s- and that’s what’s happening in Eagleland right now.”

Luigi nodded, “You have my condolences.” Again Luigi began to leave.

“I’m going to stop them!” Ness shouted before Luigi got far.

Luigi turned again, “And I hope you do, with all my being I hope you do.” The clanking footsteps continued on, echoing down the stairs, and then they were gone.

Ness looked over the weapons again, this time being more careful not to touch anything. 

“Would you look at this?” Ness grinned as he heard Rock’s voice at the entrance. He turned and saw his friend looking normal again. 

“Pretty cool huh?” Ness pointed to the trunk of weapons.

“Yup,” Rock reached for the gigantic sword with the etched markings on the blade.

“Luigi said we should be careful!” Ness tried to warn but Rock had already lifted the sword from its storage place. The symbols on the blade gave off a bright red glow and then the blade lit into hot plasma-like flames.

The light the sword gave off reflected in Rock’s eyes as he looked as though he was remembering something. He grinned and swung the sword to the side, “Yeah, these will help us out a lot.” The sword returned to normal and Rock put it down as if it hadn’t just been hot enough to melt iron.

“How’d you do that?” Ness held his hand over the blade and couldn’t feel any residual heat radiating from it, as if it had cooled instantly.

“Don’t worry, I can teach you how some of these work, we’ll have to come up with some good weapons to use while we train with swords too,” Rock looked over the cloth and grinned, “And we need some protection, Toad, is there a tailor in the castle?”

Toad nodded, “My mentor Toadsworth, the caretaker of this castle, is very skilled in multiple crafts.”

“That’s great,” Rock held the cloth out to Toad, “then if we could get some help crafting these materials into clothes and armor we’d be very grateful.”

“Of course, I’ll let him know right away,” Toad took the fabric from Rock, “I should also show you to some rooms where you can stay until you’re ready to depart. Please follow me.” Toad led the way to the other side of the second-floor hallway, “This is the guest wing, no one has stayed in quite some time so I apologize for the dust, I’ll clean it up right away. You can stay in the first two rooms on the left.”

“Thank you so much for your hospitality,” Ness noticed Rock spoke with a formality beyond his normal speech.

Ness and Rock helped Toad clean the rooms quickly and then settled in for the evening. The guest rooms were mostly open spaces. An intricate canopy bed against one wall and a large wooden armoire across from it. A small desk with a brass oil lamp was beside an open bay window. 

Ness wore a set of white and blue striped pajamas that had been found for him. He sat alone on the bed, swinging his legs off the side while he stared around the empty room. Though he was originally quite charmed by the castle, the wide empty space had started to feel lonesome. He fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, “I wonder how Ninten is doing.”

The bed was plush and soft, but somehow Ness didn’t feel comfortable as he rolled from one side to another. He closed his eyes and tried to force himself to sleep. Through the silence, Ness heard a slight metal panging. At first, he didn’t pay much attention to it, but as it softly continued at almost random intervals his curiosity got the better of him.

Ness’s bare feet set down on the carpet and and he quietly opened the door of his room while listening for the sound again. Everything was quiet for a moment but then he heard it again coming from Rock’s room. Ness slowly pushed Rock’s door open and peeked inside.

Rock was sitting at the desk with his back to the door. He had a hammer in his hand that he was gently tapping something with.

Ness knocked on the door, “Whatchya doin?”

“Hey,” Rock pushed what he was working on aside, “I just had an idea for something and was trying to see if it would work.”

“What is it?” Ness moved closer and tried to look over Rock’s shoulder.

Rock showed Ness the metal blade attached to a steel cable, “It’s not working right yet, but if it works then it’ll be a yoyo.”

“Huh?” The contraption was metal and looked more like a saw blade than a yoyo.

Rock laughed and put it back, “I’m probably just tired and doing something wrong. Sorry if I kept you up. We should sleep and I’ll try working on it again tomorrow.”

Ness shrugged, “It’s okay, I wasn’t able to sleep very well anyway. This place doesn’t really feel that comfortable yet.”

Rock tilted his head to the side, “I guess it is kinda weird trying to sleep in a different place all of a sudden. Do you wanna stay in here?” Ness nodded quietly. “Don’t worry about it, the beds are bigger than mine was back home, so there’s plenty of room for both of us.”

Rock motioned for Ness to help him pull back the covers before he blew out the lamp. Ness could make out Rock’s outline in front of the moonlight filtering in through the window as he pulled his new tunic up and over his head and then pushed his pants to the floor. He picked them up and folded them before hanging them over the desk chair. 

Ness took the right side of the bed and pulled the covers over him as Rock settled on the left. 

“Are you alright Rock?” Ness couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course I am, why?” Rock’s smile was just barely visible in the dark.

Not sure how hard he should push for answers Ness brought up, “When we were talking to the Princess earlier, you seemed upset when she mentioned The Wizard of Light.”

Rock nodded, “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Ness fidgeted under the sheets, “It’s just that, I go to you whenever I’m upset and you know you can talk to me about anything too right?”

A light-hearted chuckle came from the left side of the bed, “I know, thanks. I’m still sorry, I don’t want you to feel like I don’t trust you, it’s just there are some things I had to deal with before I met you that aren’t easy to talk about.”

Ness nodded into his pillow, “Well if you ever want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”

“Thank you,” Rock rolled over and pulled Ness into him.

Immediately Ness could feel pulse-like waves of energy radiate from where Rock was holding him. Like before there was a glow that was slightly visible through the sheet covering them. With a sigh of contentment, Ness rolled over and wrapped his arms around his friend’s back, feeling the contact with the exposed skin send more pulses through them as he did so, “I wouldn’t know what to do if you weren’t here with me. You’re always there for me and I want to be there for you too.”

Rock smiled over Ness’s shoulder, and neither boy broke away from the other.

A few minutes of silence passed between them. Ness continued to hold on tight to his friend, his hands continued to pulse on the smooth skin of Rock’s back as he rubbed up and down. He realized if he squeezed tighter the flow between them sped up slightly. He tried to remain serious, but couldn’t help it when the closeness got to him. Rock felt something pushing against his leg and tried to hold back a laugh but couldn’t which made Ness laugh too.

Ness pulled back, a twinge of embarrassment apparent on his face, “Sorry, ever since I found that crystal thing, it’s like every touch makes me feel- well,” Ness tried to find a word that would explain the sensations coursing through his body.

“Horny?” Rock finally blurted out without fear of something dropkicking him.

Ness couldn’t help but giggle as he shrugged, “Maybe, I guess?”

One of Rock’s eyebrows raised up, “I’ll tell you a secret.”

Ness scooted just a little bit closer to Rock’s face, “What?”

Rock lowered his voice to just a whisper, “The way energy pulses from your skin when we touch…”

Ness nodded to encourage Rock to continue, “Yeah?”

Rock pushed his hips against Ness so Ness could tell he was hard as well, “It makes me really horny too.”

Though it was expected, Ness couldn’t help himself and cracked up. Once he calmed down, Ness tried to return to looking serious, “So why don’t you-” Ness finished his sentence by gesturing his hand up and down in the air.

“I would but-” Rock hummed to himself as if he were in deep thought, “I found something out the other day.”

Still playing a bit of a game, Ness whispered, “What?”

Rock leaned all the way closer and placed his hand on Ness’s thigh, “It’s a lot more fun to do it with someone else than by myself.”

Ness bit his lip slightly as he placed his hand on Rock’s thigh as well, “I think so too.”

The anticipation was already making their breathing unsteady, “You want to do that again?”

“Yeah,” Rock felt Ness’s hand slide under the leg of his boxers. Ness’s fingers left an electrifying trail along Rock’s inner thigh. He reached Rock’s scrotum and put gentle pressure against one of his balls. Rock took in a sharp breath as Ness continued to massage him with just the tips of his fingers. 

Clothes were being too restrictive on movements so Rock lifted himself and was about to slide his underwear off when he felt Ness’s hands move out his leg sleeve and pull them down for him. Ness had to sit up slightly to push the garment past Rock’s thighs, and then he used his own foot to kick it off of Rock the rest of the way. It took Ness a moment to realize that he was undressing Rock, and when it struck him, he found it more exciting than he thought he would. 

Deciding it was his turn, Rock slid his hands over Ness’s pajamas and slowly undid the buttons. Ness laid back and let Rock work. His pajama shirt was opened and pushed over his shoulders which pinned his arms to his sides. Ness tried to wiggle out of the shirt but found himself a little stuck and laughed at the predicament. Rock used the opportunity while Ness’s arms were stuck to place his hand on Ness’s stomach. The glow gave off just the faintest hum as Rock slid his hand up from Ness’s tummy to the centerline of his chest. Ness closed his eyes, his mouth hung open and quivered slightly as he enjoyed the waves rushing over him. Finally, Rock helped pull his arms out of the stuck shirt and tossed it off to the side. 

Next, Rock’s fingers began searching for the buttons to Ness’s sleeping pants which were directly over his hardened shaft. Ness couldn’t help but flex his dick against the hands as Rock fumbled with the button. Rock found two of the buttons before he started pushing the garment down Ness’s legs far enough for Ness to impatiently kick the rest of the way off his feet. 

Rock’s fingers ghosted over Ness’s testicles and up the back of his shaft to the head. Ness closed his eyes and shuttered, “That feels really nice.” Rock chuckled as he moved his fingers back down the same path. Ness reached over again and did the same to Rock.

Both boys stayed on their sides facing each other as their hands stimulated the other, up and down. The sheet on top of them kept moving from side to side with their arm motions and their breathing slowly became more rasped.

Their game became lost as they leaned into each other and began concentrating on how they were touching each other. Being so focused on what they were doing made it easier to be lost in what they were receiving. A jolt of pleasure reminded Ness of how good it felt as he was unable to stop a groan that escaped his throat. Rock laughed quietly, “Try not to be too loud, you never know if a guard might be walking by outside. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to be caught like this.”

While Ness agreed that being caught would be embarrassing, he seemed to make it a mission to try and get Rock to moan out loud as well. Rock matched the increased pace and both boys began breathing heavily.

Rock tugged on Ness faster pulling the skin forward and back. Ness squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face under Rock’s chin while he tried to mimic the motion back. Their arms rubbed against each other and their legs began to entwine. 

Rock’s hips bucked into Ness’s hand so Ness reflexively gripped a little tighter. Rock finally let a gasp out. It was close enough for Ness to feel like a victory of sorts. The way Rock was moving against him, the low noises he was making, the way his dick pulsed in Ness’s hand, Ness realized it made him feel good and powerful in ways he never knew before. It was like a warm sensation was working its way up his body, he felt hot even, the kind where he would have felt really good even if he wasn’t being touched, but he was being touched which pushed him past his point of no return. Ness squeezed his eyes shut, his mouth opened wide and yet little more than a squeak escaped as he ejaculated into Rock’s hand. Rock watched intently as the orgasm flooded Ness’s senses. The sight of Ness shivering in pleasure and the sensation building up in his groin from Ness’s touches had Rock past his limit. He bit down on his lip as Ness tugged a few more times on his shaft before he also shot his semen across Ness’s arm. 

Their hands finally fell away from each other but their legs staying crossed as they lied still for several minutes and simply breathed heavily while recovering from their orgasmic highs. 

Ness swallowed to try and get moisture down his dry throat, “That was really awesome.”

“Definitely,” Rock agreed. 

The two boys slid closer to each other and embraced in the darkness, not caring that they were both sticky. Exhaustion passed over Ness and his eyes grew heavy and began to close, “I’m here for you too Rock, whenever you need me.”

“I know,” Rock held Ness a little tighter, “I’ll tell you more tomorrow, I promise.”

* * *

**End Chapter**


	6. A Proper Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mushroom Kingdom provides Ness and Rock with all the help they can, given their limited resources. The boys use their time in the kingdom to prepare for a great journey.

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**Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords**

Ness and Rock exited Magicant and found themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom. Not knowing they had bypassed several defensive lines the two soon found themselves being chased into the royal castle of the kingdom by a man in green armor. Ness and Rock tried hiding from their pursuers but were found each time. When it finally appeared as though the two had the opportunity to escape they found themselves magically teleported by a ray of sunlight in the castle where they found the hat of the original Champion of Fire, Mario.

After climbing the stairs of the castle the two found a painting of the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom that turned out to be the actual Princess Peach who had been placed under a dark curse to reside in the painting. Peach explained to Ness the legend of the elemental champions and that he has been chosen to be the new Champion of Lightning. Peach also managed to cast a spell on Mario’s old hat so that it would guide them to the next Champion of Fire.

Ness and Rock were given access to a secret armory that was left behind by the Wizard of Light which triggered some emotions in Rock. Ness and Rock now gear up and train in preparation to search for the next Champion who must join them to save the world.

* * *

**Chapter 5: A Proper Story**

* * *

Ness groggily opened an eye. He immediately closed it and waited a while. When he opened it again he was a little more prepared for the light that was shining in through the window. He slowly sat up in bed, his hair was a mess and his eyes wouldn’t fully open. As his mind began to register his surroundings he realized he was in the room in the Mushroom Kingdom castle that he had shared with Rock, but currently, there was no one else around.

Slowly, Ness took a look around the room and noticed everything was rather still and quiet. A morning breeze was flowing in through the open window carrying a fresh scent of dew. Though it was bright outside, Ness could tell the sun was barely over the eastern mountains and shining into his room. It took Ness a few moments to reach under the blankets and find his wrinkled pajamas pants. He quickly slipped them on and stepped out into the hallway.

Just as the previous day, the castle hallways were empty. Ness first checked in on his own room and, after determining that it was also empty, began a trek through the castle. He wasn't sure if he should call out, but then heard a sound like something swinging on metal coming from the armory. Curiously, Ness pushed open the door to the armory and looked inside. He found Rock doing pull-ups on a bar that hung from two beams on the wall. He was moving pretty fast from a dangling position to his head just above the bar, and then further pushing himself up and over the bar to full arm extension. Ness watched him for a minute as he repeated the exercise at a vigorous pace. "You've been doing that for a while, huh?" 

Rock stopped in mid pull and looked over his shoulder, "Oh hey, maybe a bit." Rock dropped from the bar and grabbed a towel he left nearby to rub the sweat from his forehead.

Ness's mouth went flat as Rock dropped from the bar, "I should be training too, why didn't you wake me?"

Rock scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, after a day like yesterday I thought you could use more rest."

"Yeah well," Ness crossed his arms and tried to look determined, "You told me you were going to teach me how to use magical items yesterday and that we were going to start working at becoming stronger and I'm ready to start."

Rock closed his eyes and smiled at his friend, "With an attitude like that you'll pass me in no time. First thing, let's get you some better clothes before someone sees you."

"I guess PJs aren't the best thing to work out in," Ness agreed.

"That and you can totally tell you didn't sleep in them from the way they’re wrinkled up," Rock teased causing Ness to blush at the insinuation. With Ness in better clothes, Rock pushed Ness through a series of weight lifts, sprints, and calisthenics to establish a baseline for Ness’s physical condition. The two spent several hours going through exercises that Ness felt were rigorous though he could also tell Rock was holding back. He didn't like it but vowed to keep pushing harder.

Once Rock had a good idea of what Ness was capable of, he found him a wooden sword and explained the basics on how to use one. The two were parrying and striking back and forth. Rock would sidestep and twist his sword sending Ness tumbling but the younger boy continued to push himself back up and try again.

The two were at it for several hours, and Ness was definitely picking up the basics when there was a knock and the door opened, "A-hem, pardon the intrusion," Ness and Rock looked up finding an elderly man with a bushy mustache standing in the doorway of the armory, "Terribly sorry, my name is Toadsworth, the caretaker of this castle, and I have received direction from the princess to assist the two of you in any way possible. I've already been told by my apprentice that you are in need of new garments suitable for adventure."

Ness bowed courteously to the man, "Yes sir, thank you, my name is Ness."

Rock shook the man's hand next, "And I'm Rock, we found the material here that we wanted to have used in our equipment but are in need of a weaver and leatherworker."

"You're in luck as I am well accomplished in these and many crafts," Toadsworth sniffed at the air, "It appears as though the two of you have been working quite a sweat today, why don't we have a bath prepared for you and then I will get to work."

"That sounds great, thank you," Ness and Rock followed the old man out and through another hallway.

Toadsworth led them to the large guest bath, "I believe you'll find the baths here quite refreshing, the water is pumped from an underground hazy maze cave and then heated over a lethal lava pit."

"Sounds amazing," Rock indulged the man with a grin garnering a laugh.

"Hohoho, there's a reason this man continues to be spry in his old age." Toadsworth made sure the bath was filling before turning to leave, "I'll return shortly to take your measurements."

"Thank you," Ness and Rock began to shed their sweat-soaked clothes as the door shut.

Rock was the first to lower himself into the large sunken bath, "Wow, he was right, the water is really hot, this is awesome!"

A little more excited now that it had Rock's approval, Ness sank in on the opposite side, "It is hot, and there isn’t even a fire under the tub."

"Yeah, you've never seen a hot spring huh?" Ness shook his head to Rock's question, "If they've got an underground lava pit then that's basically the same principle here, some kind of mineral water that's heated through geothermal ducts and then pumped up to the castle."

Ness grinned as Rock once again explained everything, “See, you even know how that works!"

Rock tilted his head, "What, about hot springs?"

"I mean everything," Ness leaned back against the warm tiles, "You always seem to know what's going on, you know how to fight with swords even though I had never seen you use one before, and you even know how to use magical items when Luigi was scared to even touch them."

"Oh, that kind of everything," Rock looked down as he thought his words through, but his expression remained cheerful, "You know I only moved to Onett less than three years ago."

"Yeah," Ness replied, "You were quiet at first too, but you became a lot friendlier after you started hanging out with Ninten and me."

Rock sunk a bit into the water, his downcast face created a shadow over his eyes. Ness noticed the change in attitude and became quiet as he realized Rock was about to say something serious, "Things were rough before I met you."

"How rough?" Ness gulped.

"I..." Rock tried to keep a brave face as he continued, "was drafted into a war."

It took a moment for Ness to process what Rock said, "Drafted? But you were only twelve when we met, how could you have been...?"

"Things were bad," Rock looked off like he was remembering difficult things, "Some terrible villains joined forces and threatened many different countries. There were so few warriors left and the enemy was on the verge of winning so a state of emergency was called and the draft age was dropped to seven."

"How could they lower it so much?! You were only seven?!" Ness asked astonished.

Rock nodded, "Well... for special cases that they thought could help the war effort. Mostly what they wanted was access to my father. He's a smart guy you know, but he didn't want to make magical weapons even though everyone knew he could, he just needed enough motivation to do it."

Understanding flashed in Ness's eyes, "If you had to fight in the war, then he'd have to make magical weapons to help you."

"That's how it was," Rock smiled a bit sadly.

Ness hung his head understanding how painful it must be for Rock to think about such things, "And that's why you know how to use magical weapons."

"Bingo," Rock pointed his finger like a gun making a slight splash in the water, "I’m sorry, I’m sure this isn’t fun to talk about."

"No, I'm sorry!" Ness shook his head, "We've been best friends for years and I never knew something so major about you."

Rock frowned for a moment, but quickly his expression changed to his normal confident one, "I never mentioned it before so there was no way you could have known. Don’t worry about me though, I can deal with it no problem."

The change almost frustrated Ness, “You’re the one who shouldn’t worry so much about me. You don’t need to sugar coat things or pretend everything is fine for my sake if you’re actually feeling sad. I’m sorry I didn’t notice this for so long, but I promise to try and pay more attention and listen when you need it.”

A flat smile crossed Rock’s face as he sighed, “I’m supposed to be the guardian here, you can’t be the one protecting me now.”

Ness did his best to replicate Rock’s usual confidence, “We protect each other.” He held his hand out so that he and Rock could shake to seal the deal. Rock nodded happily and clapped his hand hard against Ness’s. Momentarily forgetting the effect this would have, they both jumped as a spark lit the room and an electrical current filled the bathtub. Neither of them was hurt by the spark, but the adrenaline coursing through them from being startled had them immediately laughing. Ness shook his head, “I’m never going to get used to that.”

The door opened as Toadsworth entered with a small box in his arms. "Looks like I missed a good joke," Toadsworth chortled to himself as he set the box on a table and pulled out a few measuring tools, “I have the materials ready to craft your new equipment and only need your measurements."

The boys moved to the edge of the tub to try and get a better look at what tools the man was using. Toadsworth held up a strand of measuring tape, "Who wants to be first?"

Rock climbed out of the tub and stood in front of Toadsworth without much thought, “I’ll go first.”

Toadsworth hummed as Rock stepped closer, “Right, you’re from the outer realms aren’t you?”

Rock chuckled, “I guess you could say that, why do you ask?”

Toadsworth positioned Rock’s arms away from his torso and began taking measurements, “It’s just you didn’t hesitate to climb out of the bath in front of a near-total stranger, and I had heard that customs of the outer realms left people with less of a sense of- shyness?”

Rock tried to shrug without moving his arms from where Toadsworth was taking measurements, “It depends where, I’ve traveled a lot, in some lands people are very modest while others are very-” Rock thought for a moment on the proper word to describe them, “open? I can put something on though if that would be better?”

“Don’t worry lad,” Toadsworth continued to diligently take the measurements he needed around Rock’s torso, “This makes my job easier and I’ll know for certain I have accurate measurements to work with.”

Ness didn’t say anything while he watched Toadsworth measure Rock from all angles. He thought back and tried to remember if Rock had ever been shy about anything around him. He couldn’t place an instance and filed it also under things about Rock he had never really thought about.

Once Toadsworth had written down all the measurements he needed from Rock, he motioned Ness up next, “Your turn.”

Deciding to emulate Rock’s bravado, Ness climbed out of the tub and immediately stood in front of Toadsworth. Rock grinned to himself from behind Ness, he lowered himself back into the water while keeping quiet but watching expectantly.

“Lift your arms up for me please,” Toadsworth reached out to pose Ness as needed, but when the man’s fingers touched Ness’s skin the two both jumped from the same static shock effect Ness had experienced with Ninten. “Oh my!” Immediately Toadsworth let go of Ness’s arm. 

Ness’s eyes widened for a moment but then he looked down apologetically, “I’m sorry, I keep forgetting about that!”

Seeing Ness look slightly distressed, Toadsworth chuckled to himself, “I had heard that you're quite the accomplished lightning caster? Enough to knock out General Luigi and his best men.”

Ness nodded nervously, “I’m best with lightning magic, yes. I got lucky against Luigi though, he was standing in water at the time.”

“Hoho! Absolutely shocking!” Toadsworth thought for a moment, “I suppose there’s no way for you to turn that electrification off?” Ness shook his head still looking embarrassed, “I have an idea then!” Toadsworth left the room but quickly returned with two cloths, “The fabric we are making your clothes from has quite remarkable insulatory qualities, let’s try this again.” Toadsworth used the cloth to form a barrier between his hands and Ness’s skin and this time neither felt a thing, “This should work just fine, now flex your arm please.” 

Ness beamed as he followed directions, “That’s great, so with clothes made out of that stuff I won’t have to worry about shocking people I don’t want to!”

Toadsworth grinned and nodded as he spread Ness’s fingers, “I’ll be sure and make you a good pair of gloves as well.” Toadsworth wrote down the first few numbers. He seemed to be comparing Ness’s numbers to Rock’s, “How far apart are you two in age?”

“About a year, right?” Ness looked to Rock who nodded in confirmation.

Toadsworth scribbled a few more numbers alongside Ness’s measurements, “I get the strong inclination you’re going to be growing some more musculature quite rapidly, especially if what I hear is true and you’re planning on venturing across the continent in search of the remaining elemental champions,” Toadsworth returned to Ness’s arm and had him straighten it and flex a few more times.

Ness bit his lip but tried to remain confident, "That would be really cool.”

“Oh you will, believe me, the heroes of this Mushroom Kingdom, the brothers Mario and Luigi, they were scrawny little things when they first arrived. Well- Luigi was a bit scrawny, Mario might have been a bit filled out in his youth I dare say, hoho. But I’d wager it was around your age when they grew into fine warriors.” Toadsworth wrapped the tape around Ness’s upper thigh, “I believe they each went through three or four sets of clothes and armor within a year’s time as they became more proficient in swordplay and combat. I’m going to leave your new garments a little extra room to grow into, so try not to worry if they’re a tad on the loose side.”

Ness nodded, “Alright, I won’t.”

Toadsworth removed his tape and stood back as Ness lowered his arms, “All done, I’ll get to work right away. I expect it will take a few days, I don’t often have the chance to work with such fine materials and want to take the time to produce the best garments I can, something that will last the long haul for both of you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ness bowed courteously.

Toadsworth smiled warmly, “No such formalities necessary lad, you’re off to save the world, I’m the one doing so little as to just be providing clothes to such fine heroes in training. And though it may not be much at the moment, please enjoy what hospitality we can offer you in the meantime.”

Rock spoke up with an assurance to his voice, “We’ll be training hard while we’re here, and we really appreciate everything you and the others are doing to support us.” Toadsworth waved himself off to get to work while Ness returned to the tub to finish rinsing off.

The room returned to quiet except for the sound of swishing water as Ness ran a cloth over his face and arms. He knew there was still a big lingering question he had from the day before, and he was sure Rock was anticipating it, then it should be simple to just get it out and over with. "Rock, Yesterday when the princess brought up The Wizard of Light, you got kinda upset. Can you tell me what happened?"

Immediately Rock sighed and Ness wondered if maybe he shouldn't have brought it up. But Rock took a deep breath before he explained, "My father has gone by a lot of different names and titles. Some call him a great doctor or a powerful wizard. In Onett he told everyone to call him Doc Tom, but back home he's known as Doctor Light."

Ness's mouth hung open, "So The  _ Wizard _ of Light...?"

Rock sighed, "Is just another name for my dad."

"So when the princess mentioned him, you were upset because-?" Ness was a little confused as he tried piecing the last bit together.

Rock's eyes closed as his head tilted up, "Yesterday wasn’t the first time I’ve seen the exact same weapons that were in the castle armory.” Rock caught himself before he started a sighing streak and instead restored eye contact with Ness, “He left all these weapons that I'm familiar with here on purpose, so that means he knew we'd come here; he knew everything would happen the way it did. He calculated and expected all of this as far back as two years ago. I guess I just let it get to me that he has this big plan going on that I'm a part of but have no idea where it's going yet."

Ness nodded finally understanding Rock's struggle. As much as he always seemed like he was in control and knew what was going on and where he was going, he was still just barely keeping up with his father's shadow which must have been maddening. “At least he’s done all this to help you.”

Rock let a sarcastic laugh slip, “If he wanted to help all he ever had to do was tell me what was going on instead of playing these stupid mind games and coming up with these  _ missions _ . Imagine how much better off we’d be if we had known three years ago that you were the Champion of Lightning and that all these things were going to happen.”

Ness bit his lip as he thought about the last few days. If he had known all this was going to happen, had he been prepared for it, he could have done more to save the people of Onett, he could have protected Ninten, his family, and had he been able to protect them- “We wouldn’t have left.” Ness said out loud as a realization that was both painful and eye-opening hit him.

“What?” Rock wasn’t sure where Ness’s thoughts were.

Ness shook his head and sniffed, “I don’t like it either, I do wish we had known what was coming. But if we had prepared for it, found a way to stop it from happening, then we’d still be in Onett. We wouldn’t have left, and we wouldn’t be about to search for the other Champions to save the world and all that. We’d be sitting in Onett until-” Ness tried to figure out what would have happened next in that situation.

Now following the logic, Rock was able to finish the scenario, “Until something bigger and badder hit Onett and caused even more damage and maybe hurt you and stopped you from fulfilling the legend.” Rock’s head fell back as he let that possible outcome sink in, “So he made the choice that would move us in the right direction. And that’s my dad for you, always ten steps ahead in the game.”

Rock’s tone turned to something on the borderline of self-depreciation. Slowly, Ness moved closer to Rock and very carefully wrapped his arm around Rock’s shoulder so the shock was gradual enough to keep any sudden effect under control. He leaned his head on his best friend's shoulder to offer as much support and comfort as he could, "You're not just some pawn in someone else's game."

Water in the tub swished as Rock turned his head and looked slightly afraid after Ness's words, "What?"

Ness grimaced, thinking he was being hard to understand, "You're not your father's pawn in whatever game he's playing, he may be a few steps ahead of everyone else which does help us for sure, but we're still going to do things our way. You're my best friend, guardian, all that stuff, and- you're  _ amazing _ . You’re a hero! Not because of your dad but because of who  _ you _ are."

Rock blinked a few times feeling perplexed by Ness but finally smiled and wrapped Ness in both his arms, holding him tight for a minute, "Thank you, I'm really glad that if I had to be teamed up with someone, that it was you."

Ness smiled back and the two remained locked together. Rock let his cheek rest on top of Ness’s head for several minutes as they gently rocked in the glowing water together. As it had been for several days, every touch, the current it generated through the water, it felt great to both of them. But this moment, there was something beyond feeling good, they took comfort in each other in a way that was beginning to transcend physical sensations. 

Rock lifted his head off of Ness and lowered himself so they could look directly into each other’s eyes. Rock’s face was only centimeters from his nose touching Ness’s. His eyes which were a near ridiculous shade of neon blue stared into Ness’s violet ones. Ness gulped as Rock’s hands cupped his cheeks, “Rock?”

The confident half-smile returned to Rock’s face, “Come on, you need to learn how to use enchanted items next.”

The tone between the two immediately shifted to one of determination and readiness, “Yeah!” Quickly the two were rinsed, dried, clothed, and back to the armory. 

Rock taught Ness the basics of identifying different forms of enchantments, runes, and incantations on items and how to activate them. Over the next few days, Rock pushed Ness in physical fitness, magical ability, sword skill, and taught him to use several enchanted items.

Ness pushed himself hard, refusing to laze about the castle. He got up early with Rock and pushed the limits of his body, mind, and soul. The sun was barely rising in the morning as Ness was sprinting over the hills beyond the castle. He jumped off the top of a steep hill and rolled into a landing before springing back up and launching several lightning bolts from his hands to take out the targets Rock had set up the day before. A tree at the bottom of another steep hill signified the end which Ness still had to quickly climb and then leap from the top of the tree to the castle grounds.

Ness’s feet hit the ground and a series of clapping caught him by surprise, “Keep up that kind of effort and perhaps you could stand a chance.”

“General Luigi,” Ness gulped as the man approached with his two highest-ranking guards beside him. “You were watching?”

Luigi nodded, “You’ve only had a few chances to run this kind of gauntlet training, but each day you’ve gotten better and faster than I would have expected in such a short time. If you can keep up that level of improvement-”

Ness had a look of surprise from Luigi's compliment.

“Make no mistake,” Luigi almost immediately took a step back, “I’m not praising your current level. Mario used to run similar training gauntlets in these fields and last I saw him he would have wiped the floor with you and your abilities- as they are now.”

“Umm- okay.” Ness scratched his head, “So-”

Luigi sighed and took a deep breath before continuing, “I apologize, I’ve had to keep strong since- well- I leave today for the front and only wanted to wish you both well on your travels.”

Ness smiled, “Good luck to you too.”

Luigi actually gave Ness a salute over his heart, “The path ahead will be difficult, but we’re counting on you.” The uncomfortable expression didn’t leave Luigi’s face as he untied a leather pouch from his belt, “You will need this.”

Ness was unsure what was going on as Luigi handed the pouch to him. With no further explanation, Ness opened the pouch and pulled out a thin case. It opened to reveal a red crystal shard, similar to the one he’d found on Mt. Itoi, “This is…”

“I found it, almost immediately after Mario disappeared,” Luigi explained, “I’ve held onto it for years now, but the new Champion of Fire is the one who will need it most.”

Somehow Ness understood the sentimental significance Luigi had placed on this item and intrinsically knew it was not so simple to just hand it over, “Thank you.”

Luigi nodded as he turned and walked away with his soldiers still close behind. Ness grinned to himself and returned to the castle.

As he walked back to his room he noticed Rock’s door was open and Toad was inside helping Rock organize his weapons while he tried on his clothes. Rock’s pants were two-toned, with a light grey cloth from his waist to just above his knees, a different charcoal cloth to his feet, and dark leather knee pads and side guards at his hips. He had a tan-colored muscle shirt, black fingerless gloves, and was buckling a set of leather cross belts. “What do you think?” Rock showed off to Ness, “Toadsworth is definitely an artisan crafter!” He had a pair of black leather mid-top boots nearby, and a blue jacket with dark leather shoulder and elbow guards.

Ness felt the material on Rock’s jacket “It looks cool, but it feels light, is it gonna be okay if we’re rough with it?”

“This material is quite special and exotic,” Toad explained, “Most of the material is an extremely durable weave of sylphic cotton and thunder wool which both resists elemental magic spells and amplifies electrical charges. The leather is thunder sheepskin which is an amazing insulator and resists cutting and piercing almost entirely. I’m unsure where the Wizard of Light was able to acquire such a large amount of these materials.”

Rock chuckled, “Sheep Man.” It was an odd comment, but he offered no further explanation.

There was a knock on the open door behind Ness as Toadsworth entered, “Good morning Master Ness, I was taking your new garbs to your room when I heard your voice in here.” Toadsworth placed the clothes on Rock’s bed.

Ness looked over the clothes which were similar to Rock’s pants, boots, and belts, but he had a pair of full gloves instead of fingerless, a loose white short-sleeved tunic top with black hems, and a violet tabard with grey leather shoulder and elbow guards. 

“I also took the liberty of repairing your hat,” Toadsworth set the purple bycocket hat over the tabard. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“You didn’t have to, thank you!” Ness picked up the hat and ran his hand over the brim. It was the same hat but felt stiffer and there was a new vibrant feather on it. Ness quickly dressed and looked himself over in the mirror.

“Not bad,” Rock stopped to check Ness out as well, “Oh, and I finished this for you.”

Ness turned around as Rock held a what looked like a metal yoyo in his hand, “What’s that for?”

“You’ll need to be careful with it, but watch this,” Rock flicked his wrist and flung the yoyo forward. Thanks to his training, Ness could tell now that Rock was activating a magical enchantment as the yoyo grew in size and then opened serrated edges similar to Rock’s metal blades. 

“Whoa!” Ness’s eyes widened as he watched the slept yoyo blades spin like twin buzz saws. A steel core in the center of the yoyo used the centrifugal force to spin like a turbine and generated its own crackling static. Rock tugged on the cord and caused the yoyo to retract; the blades rounded off and it shrank to its normal size by the time it returned to his hand.

“That was awesome!” Ness watched in amazement as Rock placed the yoyo in his hand.

Rock made sure the ring was adjusted as he slid it on top of Ness’s knuckles, “I thought since you were always playing with that wooden yoyo that this would make a good sub-weapon for you until you get better with swords.”

“Definitely!” Ness excitedly examined the weapon more closely.

“The reason it’s metal,” Rock grinned as he pointed out, “is that it’s very conductive; if you were to cast a lightning spell through it you could probably get some interesting effects. Just a thought.”

Ness looked as though he liked the idea as he hung the yoyo off his belt. Rock had quite a few weapons hanging off of his own belts and of course the huge sword on his back that could light itself on fire.

All their weapons were secure as Rock grinned at Ness, “So what direction is Mario’s cap pulling us in?”

Ness held the cap up with his hand under the brim and the cap indeed pulled in a certain direction, “That way, southeast I think.”

Rock nodded, “Then we’ve got a long trek ahead of us, we better get going.”

Toadsworth looked worried, “There is not much in that direction, arid wastelands, strong winds, and desolate dunes, we’ve come to call the area The Mushroomy Desert. I’d strongly recommend taking routes around the desert if at all possible.”

Rock put his hand up to his chin in thought, “The routes that go around the desert, what lands do they cross through?”

A deep sigh came from Toadsworth, “They cross through lands heavily patrolled by the Golden Empire.”

“A hot desert or pointy swords.” Rock thought for a moment longer. “I think we’d be better off keeping our distance from anything empire related for now but what do you think Ness?”

Ness nodded in agreement, “Yeah I’d rather not have to deal with those empire guys for a while.”

“I must warn you,” Toadsworth spoke again, “There are creatures that roam the desert, vile things that will make passage extremely unsafe.”

“Thanks,” Rock smiled to the old man, “But we’re going to be facing some danger no matter what we do, at least this way we may have a chance to get some more practice in before we have to deal with anything really bad.”

Toadsworth gulped to himself but nodded, “Very well, we have some old maps of the desert which may help you find a few shelters along your way. We can provide you with a Yoshi mount and several days worth of food and water.” Toad dragged in a large saddle pack and two backpacks filled with food, water containers, and emergency supplies.

“You’ve been so nice to us!” Ness grinned as he looked through the bag, “Thank you.”

“I truly wish we were in a position to offer you more.” Toadsworth sighed, “Only a few years ago we would have backed you up with heroes and a grand army. Now we are reduced to this.”

Rock put a hand on the elderly man’s shoulder, “We’ll be fine on our own, it’ll be easier to stealth around the empire this way believe me. And soon things will start to go back to how they once were, you’ll see!”

“Our hopes go with you,” Toad waved as the two boys took their first steps to leave the castle.

The boys bid farewell to the Princess, Toadsworth, and everyone else they’d come to know at the castle before sitting atop their Yoshi and setting out. Across the bridge, and over a hill and already the castle was falling into the background as the Yoshi swiftly carried the boys away. Ness looked over his shoulder at the remains of the Mushroom Kingdom, “I’m glad we came here. It was a little scary at first, but everyone here turned out to be really great. I sure hope we can come back and help them someday soon.”

Rock smiled and spurred the Yoshi into a slightly faster pace, “You can count on it!”

Ness psyched up as he held onto Rock and leaned to the side to feel the wind on his face, “Are we going to keep up our training while traveling?”

Rock couldn’t help but smile at Ness’s eagerness, “As long as we don’t run into any problems, I think we’ll ride until we get to one of the shelters Toadsworth marked on the map. That should be far enough out in the middle of nowhere that we can actually practice some of your bigger spells without worrying about anything.”

“That would be awesome!” The two boys cheerfully bantered as they trekked through the outskirts of The Mushroom Kingdom. Soon the trees and foliage became sparser as they entered a small savannah and from there it became obvious only dirt and sand would lie ahead. Entering the desert with the sun high in the sky almost immediately ceased all conversation between the two. The Yoshi as well showed signs of tiring, so the two hopped off and walked alongside it. Within an hour, the effects of losing the canopy of trees were immediately felt.

Rock slid his arms out of his jacket. “There’s a breeze but I can barely feel it through this thing,” He held his jacket over his head to make himself some shade. Ness decided it looked like a good idea and pulled off his Tabard to shield his face from the sun as well. He heard the Yoshi grunting tiredly and hung a cloth over its head while feeding it a few of the berries provided by Toad as well.

The dunes went on for hours. If it weren’t for the sun it would have been impossible to tell which direction was which. The small caravan climbed over another dune as Rock gauged the map.

Ness was obviously fatigued, his shirt soaked with sweat and his pace several steps slower than it had been, “I need a break…”

Rock nodded, “We both do, but stopping in the sun isn’t going to help us much.” He looked up at the sun still high in the sky and around to the sides, “If I’m reading this right, then there should be an outpost just a few more kilometers that way.”

“A few kilometers- that’s not bad right?” Ness took a deep breath and tried to keep up.

The two walked across two more dunes with their Yoshi in tow and then while standing at the top of one made out what looked like a brown brick structure with a torn flag fluttering on a tall pole in front of it.

Both boys smiled as Rock pointed toward it, “That’s it! Come on!” With their goal in sight, they found their second wind and pushed themselves toward the shelter.

One last tall dune separated them from the outpost. Ness hopped over the top and slid down the steep drop to the other side. Rock joined him in the sprint being slightly more careful to make sure the Yoshi wasn’t hurt on any jagged objects and the two rushed past the flagpole and through the slightly buried entrance. Enough sand had piled up inside the outpost that it was obvious there was much less headroom than there had once been. Caring only that he was definitely cooler in the shade away from the burning sun, Ness pulled off his soaked shirt and collapsed on the sand to catch his breath.

Rock tied Yoshi’s reigns to a well-shaded post and left a tray of water before he sat beside Ness to recover from the long trek.

After several minutes of lying sprawled out on the ground, Ness reached over and poked his friend, “How much farther does this desert go on for?”

Rock took a few more breaths before laying back on the ground next to Ness, “Far.”

Ness blinked a few times while staring at the ceiling, “Like how far?”

A sad laugh came from Ness’s right side, “If we make the same distance a day that we did today- we have about seven more days to go through this desert.”

“A whole week?!” Ness’s mouth hung open, “We’re gonna die!”

“It’ll get better,” Rock assured his friend, “These old outposts are spread out pretty equally along the desert, and you’re used to cooler mountain temperatures still. After a few days out here, it won’t feel so bad anymore.”

Ness’s head hit the sand again as he groaned in displeasure.

“At least it’s a lot cooler in here,” Rock put a hand up and felt the breeze coming through the broken windows, “Deserts like this are super hot in the sun, but once you’re in the shade it’s much cooler.”

Ness slowly opened his eyes and looked around the fort. The brown brick structure was pretty sparse, it had definitely been abandoned for some time.

“We’re going to have to change up how we travel,” Rock licked at his dry lips, “It’s too hot out here to travel during the middle of the day, we’ll be better off getting to sleep early so we can leave before the sun rises and make as much distance as we can before it gets hot.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ness agreed. 

Once the heat exhaustion had passed, the two explored the fort a bit more. There was a second floor to the fort that wasn’t buried as badly as the first floor, “This should be a good place to stay for the night.”

Ness agreed as he looked through cabinets for anything useful that might have been left behind, “What’s this?”

Rock stepped up behind Ness and looked at the odd cube in the cabinet, “That thing’s got some strong magic in it, I can feel it.” Rock put his hand over it to try and decipher what it was, “It feels like it’s some kind of earth spell, but the only clue we get is someone childishly wrote “POW” on it.”

Ness grunted as he lugged it up off the ground, “Should we bring it with us?”

Rock shook his head, “It’s too heavy, it would be exhausting trying to carry that thing everywhere.”

The block was put aside as the two prepped their rations for dinner and practiced with more magical weapons before bed. From the outside, the windows of the old fort gave off brilliant colors of light and sounds every few minutes until the sun sank below the horizon and all became quiet. 

Several hours into the darkness Ness woke up. It had still been warm as he fell asleep, but he found himself shivering in the cold of the night, “This is crazy!”

Ness pulled his tabard over his arms to try and act as a blanket, but the bite of the low temperature was still more than he expected. Ness curled up on his side to try and conserve as much heat as he could. He was still uncomfortably chilled when arms wrapped around him from behind, “Huh?”

“You’re cold,” Rock stated plainly.

“Yeah-” Ness gulped.

Rock seemed to still be half asleep as he pulled Ness closer to him. Ness braced himself for the shock as they were pulled together but it never came. He realized their clothes provided enough insulation to keep the normal effect down. For a moment Ness was almost disappointed but quickly he realized it was warmer huddling up this way and that seemed more important at the moment. Ness went ahead and pushed himself back into Rock as Rock pulled his jacket over the both of them. Rock gripped tightly onto Ness as he fell back to sleep. Ness stayed awake for a short time longer; he could feel Rock’s breath gently blowing against the back of his neck and their legs entangled. His eyes closed as he felt warm and safe.

Sometime later Ness stirred again. He barely registered that he could hear something unusual, like a high pitched growl. He slowly sat up and looked toward the stairs, “Is that Yoshi?”

“Shh,” Rock was already awake and slowly moving toward the stairs, “Someone or something else is down there too.”

Ness quickly pulled his Tabard over his head and crawled to the stairs by Rock. The two boys leaned forward over the stair opening, their heads dropping upside down from the floor above. 

At first, it was difficult to see anything. The room was dark, and the glow of moonlight from the outside did little more than illuminate their Yoshi’s outline. It definitely seemed on edge, looking around the room and growling while pulling on its harness.

Confused by not seeing anything else, Ness called out to it, “Yoshi?”

The boys heard a skin-crawling sound of sand shifting and it was as if the floor itself turned around to stare at Ness. Rock created a floating ball of light and tossed it into the room which revealed dozens of hard-shelled beetles. They were huge, each nearly a meter long. 

Ness gulped as he stared at the mean-looking horns and mandibles on each beetle, “Maybe they’re friendly?”

At the same time, the beetles all made intimidating hissing noises that almost sounded like buzzing. A mass of them rushed the staircase. 

“Or not!” Ness gulped.

“Uh-oh.” Rock leaned back and ran for his weapons.

Ness, still hanging upside down, pointed his fingers at the approaching bugs. Lightning magic gathered at his pointer fingers. He fired several bolts of lightning at the approaching beetles, but his magic had almost no effect. It was as if each bolt was completely deflected around the beetle shells. His eyes widened in shock, “Are they earth elementals?”

Rock handed Ness his Yoyo as he jumped down the stairs while activating his sword’s fire ability. He swung down at the closest buzzy beetle, but like Ness’s spell, the fire from Rock’s sword was channeled around the shell and did little more than to pin the beetle under the sword’s weight.

Rock shook his head, “No, these things are just super magic resistant.” Rock turned the flame component of his sword off and swung it sideways to brush as many beetles back as he could.

With his yoyo in hand, Ness tried swinging it at a few of the beetles. The impact managed to knock a few of the beetles onto their backs which seemed to paralyze them. 

On the far end of the room, the Yoshi made more distressing noises as it pulled on its harness still tied to the wall. Fearing for the Yoshi, Ness jumped onto one of the beetles he had flipped over and was surprised as his momentum caused the beetle to slide forward quickly on its smooth shell. He managed to keep his balance as it knocked several of the other beetles out of the way. 

Ness rolled off the shell and plopped dizzily by the Yoshi. He quickly shook it off as more beetles were approaching and untied Yoshi’s reigns that were constraining it. Free to move, Yoshi let out a loud growl as it stepped forward, its tongue shot from its mouth, wrapped around a beetle and pulled it back to Yoshi’s mouth. 

Ness watched in amazement at the way Yoshi was able to chew on something that large. Yoshi turned to a line of other beetles and spit the beetle from its mouth with such force that it bowled the beetles over. 

“Wow,” Ness and Rock were both seriously impressed with the skills of a Yoshi mount trained for battle. “How does anyone invade the Mushroom Kingdom when they have those?!”

Ness stood beside Yoshi and swung his yoyo at anything that got too close while Rock sliced at beetles in his way to regroup with the others. 

Just as it seemed as though the boys were getting a handle on the situation, more beetles piled in from the entrance and broken windows.

“THERE’S MORE?!” Ness shouted over the sounds of what remained of the glass and window frames shattering.

Rock rushed to the closest window. He tossed a metal blade at the beetle. The blade bounced off the beetle’s shell but stunned it enough for Rock to kick it back outside. He took a look through the opening in the outpost and could see the structure was surrounded by potentially hundreds of the beetles. And that wasn’t the worst part.

Rock turned to Ness and shouted, “Get away from the door!”

The entrance of the outpost nearly collapsed as a beetle over three times the size of the other beetles pushed its way inside. Ness grabbed Yoshi’s reigns and pulled it away from the enormous intruder. 

Ness wasn’t used to seeing something that big, “What do we do?”

Rock tried to analyze the whole situation, “We barricade ourselves upstairs, let’s go!”

Yoshi ate a few more of the beetles that were in their way as Ness urged it toward the stairs. Rock backed up behind them, making sure to keep the beetles at a distance with his sword.

Once they were all upstairs, Rock motioned to a large wooden cabinet, “Quick, help me knock this over.” Between the two of them, they dragged the cabinet to the stairs and knocked the heavy cabinet over the opening to block the beetles from coming up.

Feeling safe for the moment, the boys both sighed in relief. They were both scared by the sound of crunching and turned around to see Yoshi chewing on whatever it had in its mouth. It took a few moments but the dinosaur mount managed to swallow whatever it had been storing. It made a strange grunt before pushing out an egg behind it.

Ness blinked a few times at the slimy spotted egg, “I’m not sure if I should feel amazed or disgusted.”

“It’s probably fine to feel both,” Rock offered.

They both jumped with a start as something banged from the underside of the cabinet and caused it to bounce in place. They turned to see the gigantic beetle had positioned itself under the cabinet and slowly pushed it up.

“Damn, we can’t stop that one,” Rock looked around the room trying to come up with other solutions.

“I have an idea!” Ness ran to the cupboards.

“What are you…” Rock’s eyes widened as Ness pulled out the giant POW block. 

“Let’s see what  _ this _ can do!” Rock held a hand out but it was too late as Ness threw the large block at the head of the giant beetle as it burst through the opening on the floor.

The POW block gave off a powerful glow as it flew through the air. Feeling an incredible power that was about to unleash, Rock grabbed Ness’s hand and turned to run. The POW hit the beetle with a force that unleashed a shockwave of energy. A powerful bass sound was emitted with the shockwave, almost loud enough to burst eardrums on its own. Rock jumped for a window, he dragged Ness behind him as the shockwave reached them and blasted them out from the outpost. Ness felt weightless for a moment as the blast carried them through the air. He saw Yoshi, panicked and limbs fluttering jumping past them. And below the shockwave rippled through the throng of beetles, flipped all of them over and bounced them into each other in a chaotic whirlpool of pinball. 

Both Rock and Ness hit the ground some distance away. The momentum dragged and rolled them through the dirt. They managed to push themselves to their feet and looked around in a daze. The boys barely had to time to compose themselves when the ground beneath their feet quaked. They looked over their shoulders and saw a crag open in the ground and completely swallow the outpost into it. They both turned and ran as fast as they could away from the spreading hole.

It felt as though the ground Ness and Rock walked on fell a few meters straight down, knocking the boys off balance. They tried to keep running, but the sand began to flow past them in the opposite direction like an hourglass turned up, carrying them toward the dark ingress. There was nothing stable to hold onto as both boys reached the edge of the hole and were carried in, yelling as they fell.

Yoshi turned and watched for a moment. All movement stopped, and the desert returned to a serene night, only now with a large crack along the desert floor where a fort used to be.

  
  


* * *

**End Chapter**

Nintentrash drew Plan: B Ness all decked out in fantasy clothes! Check out the cover art to see it! Also, check out more of his art on DeviantArt and Tumblr, a lot more awesome Ness and Lucas to be found there! Links can be found on my Tumblr.

For anyone who’s never played Super Mario 64 I apologize for all the strange references to areas around the castle. For the Mario players out there I hope I’m doing a good job with the twisted details of The Mushroom Kingdom. 

Thanks for reading and please leave a review/comment, and feel free to message me on any of social media thingy.

‘Til next time!


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